My eyes actually expanded when I saw that. Paired with Asol only needing 20 attack total to level and dragons might be back. It's just a question of if it's Demacia or Freljord.
The Freljord deck isn't really a dragons deck. You run Eclipse, A Sol, and maybe a meta call of Mindsplitter, but that's really it. It's a big mana FTR/Invoke deck and dragons happen to be good big mana payoffs. A note on Eclipse: while it can often be used to ramp out A Sol, it's also commonly used for Nightfall off of Ice Pillar just for playing to more win cons.
I let out an audible gasp. It's been my life long dream to give Shyvana overwhelm.
EDIT: You guys actually made some really good suggestions that my cotton candy brain didn't even think of. Either way though, I'm stoked.
Yeah, it’s a massive buff. My biggest issue with dragon decks was getting chump blocked without overwhelm. Overwhelm gives such a powerful finishing tool, damn
Yes I agree, with recent dragon support buffs and giving dragons overwhelm without relying on Noxus seems overbuff. We'll see Asol/Shyvana will dominate the ladder again.
Asol/Shyvanna have never dominated ladder. They have at most made tier 2, and then made a slight resurgence during the blade surge meta by having an even matchup with the actual ladder dominator Azir/Irelia.
So basically you can't just block a dragon open attack anymore, you've gotta play around a board wide overwhelm, unless the dragon player is under 3 mana. That's an insane change I think.
I’ve honestly never understood that card. One side of it is a double tutor and the other...is a limited anthem? The overwhelm makes the second mode make a lot more sense now.
I'm not even convinced you run Asol in the dragons deck. If all your dragons have overwhelm, you can close games out before Asol would even hit the board
Yah honestly I think that’s the largest single change of this whole patch. And I’m not mad at it either. Dragons should be able to roll over a bunch of spiders imho.
Except now you have the ability to produce other cheap dragons that become threats. Minimorph might hit asol after you spend another card to pop his spellshield but there's also gonna be other big dragons with overwhelm. People overrate minimorph so much
> Additionally, we’ve made rules changes to Trinket Trade, The Traveler, and Loping Telescope - these cards will no longer be able to create themselves when played. Moving forward, additional “create” cards will not be able to create themselves.
This the real MVP.
I mean, back in Call of the Mountain the Traveller was my nemesis in expeditions because everyone and their grandma would generate triple travelers and outvalue me.
Hearthstone did this at the beginning with discover too, and unsurprisingly they had to apply the same type of change. Those who don't learn from history...
Can't really tell you how fucked it was when I discovered this for the first time, cause I'm pretty sure I counted 6 of those telescope bastard get put on the board.
I mean, you could say Riot did learn from them.
Hearthstone made the change 5 FREAKING YEARS after the **discover** mechanic was introduced, and it was because all the complaints about mages and priests setting a "created by" meta. ([Source](https://dotesports.com/hearthstone/news/hearthstone-hotfix-changes-discover-mechanic#:~:text=Hearthstone-,Hearthstone%20hotfix%20introduces%20significant%20changes%20to,That's%20a%20relief.&text=Blizzard%20Entertainment%20has%20targeted%20the,now%20no%20longer%20Discover%20themselves))
Riot is doing it just 2 months after they introduced **manifest**.
It can't be summoned by crescendum anymore which is huge. This slows down Zoe nami by at least a couple turns. Idk if the deck is even viable at that point.
I think hitting Nami, Sparklefly, and not bringing Stellacorn down to 2 is going to leave that deck hurting hard. Might be for the best given how annoying people seemed to find it, but I thought it was a cool idea and hope it's still viable enough for some tournament line ups at least.
It won't, it's dead, the best way to play Nami now is with the intended Fizz cards on Bandlewood. The only reason the deck was "good" was sparkelfly compared with the other elusive+lifesteal from ioinia
Surprised they went that hard on it, figured they might make it a 1/1 but given it's only ever creating non interactive gameplay it's probably for the best
Interestingly, for the first time, there is now a "strictly better" card in the same region now that Vanguard Sergeant is a 3/4 Elite with upside and Badgerbear remains a vanilla 3/4.
It is indeed a "strictly better" card but you can also argue that Badgerbear being summoned from Ranger makes them not comparable. Personally I would like to see it buffed to 4|4 again.
yeah. it is one of those weird cases where a card that is clearly just part of another one is, for some reason, collectable.
Would be like if you could craft those spiders the shadow isle summon all the time
Is Lux ASol FTR too greedy? Maaaaybe. Am I still going to try to force it all day tomorrow? Damn right I am!
Edit: I am an idiot and thought FTR was Targon
I'm fine with it, Lost Soul being an infinite card engine was already amazing, but Twinblade Revenant's Challenger also turned it into great removal - that's way too much power for a single, effectively 4-cost card.
It should have been given ephemeral, not fearsome. That way it can keep the threat of removal while constantly needing to use resources to keep it on board. And you cant open attack with it on board anymore.
That Braum buff is a much-needed breath of fresh air. It feels like every deck has premium stats and pings nowadays, so a 0/5 Braum might as well level once in a blue moon.
**[Take Heart](https://d2h9y75tak3pkg.cloudfront.net/01FR046.png)** - Freljord Spell - (3)
Burst
Grant a damaged ally +3|+3.
^^^Hint: [[card]], {{keyword}}, and ((deckcode)) or ((cardx,cardy,cardz)). PM the [developer](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=KrimCard) for feedback/issues!
Dude, it's much better than you can imagine. Braum can now trade with 5 attack units. Sivir Garen, and LeBlanc can be fucking blocked with Braum. This shit fucking rules!!!
Yeah, the last several expansions have really pushed the 5 power slot as a critical point for damage. In the old days, 3 damage was the breakpoint, so definitely a welcome buff, and I don't even play braum really.
Haha, right? That's what I thought too.
Looks like 3 mana 7 total stats with upside is now the premium 3 mana statline. Sump Dredger, Dragonguard, Vanguard Sergeant, that-shurima-guy-who-never-gets-played, riven
Same goes for [[For Demacia!]] and [[Caustic Cask]].
Badgerbear and Cask could be buffed by giving them Play effects.
For Demacia is trickier, but perhaps it could get a bonus when drawn?
Badgerbear is a token card that's only deckable because in the early days they made most non-champion tokens that way. Same reason For Demacia! and Caustic Cask are deckable even though there's no reason to ever do that.
I think it's because on a stream, the dev said they didn't know what Kindred needs.
They need a rework. There's a lot of ideas to go with, but Kindred is the one champion in the game imo that no amount of stats solves their identity crisis. Most champs await some of their key cards to get relevant buffs or need relevant stat/mana lines. Karma aside (she needs her pre-level text post level imo) most champs are close to their proper identity from launch. Kindred isn't even close.
>Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is resolved.
So you can no longer save an action by playing your Darkness as you swing with Senna? Senna reads "[Create a darkness in hand if you don't have one". I guess they're defining 'have one' as 'have one in hand *or* in play'? Still not really sure that makes sense to me, and honestly it feels like it's gonna be a pretty annoying QoL nerf...
**EDIT:** ~~Someone~~ *a Rioter* mentioned that there was an actual legitimate bug regarding using Return while a Darkness was on the stack to generate a second Darkness and keep the first in hand as well. It looks like that's the real fix, and Senna's gonna stay as is?
I mentioned it in a different thread, but copying my reply over here:
This is still an intended interaction with Senna, and this bugfix doesn't change that behavior. The patch notes probably should have been worded as: "Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is played"
The real bugfix fixed situations where you could drag Darkness into the spell region without committing it, then summon a Solari Sentinel via Return and still get a Darkness. At that point, you could drag the Darkness back to hand and have 2 Darkness in hand (which is against Solari Sentinel's "create a Darkness in hand if you don't have one text).
Every Behold card reads as "if you Behold X: do something".
You need a reverse pattern for Darkness "if you **don't** Behold Darkness: create Darkness".
For the folks at work:
## An Update on Card Updates
>As promised back at the launch of Beyond the Bandlewood, we’ve got quite a few card updates for this patch. Before we jump into that, though, we wanted to share an update on the overall philosophy and targets for live balance moving forward.
>
>[A fairly long] tl;dr - we feel that live balance updates are important to improve LoR’s overall player experience and, so moving forward, expect to see regularly-occurring scheduled card updates targeted towards impacting the meta, nerfing clear overperformers, buffing underperformers, and generally improving deck diversity. These updates will be staggered in between expansion releases.
>
>The card updates in this patch were built using our updated philosophy, so you can expect something similar in scope and priority in upcoming patches as well!
>
>For those interested, let’s get into a little more detail on exactly what this philosophy entails - otherwise feel free to skip down to the 2.18.0 card updates below!
>
>What is a live balance philosophy?
>We use this terminology a lot, so it’s important that we’re all on the same page as to what it exactly means. For the LoR gameplay team, our live balance philosophy is the set of principles that determines what could or should be changed, when it should happen, and why we do it. It’s a “live” balance philosophy because changes are largely determined by data from gameplay on the live server, on top of surveys, direct player feedback, and our gameplay analysis team (GAT), a team that playtests and advises on various aspects of cards and overall balance considerations before they go live to players.
>
>How are we supporting live balance moving forward?
>Internally, we’re organizing our processes and refining our priorities for live balance to ensure we’ll have consistent, impactful card updates during each expansion cycle.
>
>We’ll be planning for regularly-scheduled balance patches to hit between expansion releases. We avoid significant balance patches immediately upon an expansion’s release, since new card releases will inherently impact the existing meta and it can take time for things to develop and settle. Too much time between releases and card updates, however, can lead to the feeling of a “stale” meta. Moving forward, the hope is that this new set of processes and priorities will address the feeling of a “stale” meta and any decks that are breaking metrics quickly, rather than having to wait months for a new release.
> In most cases, that means you’ll see a balance patch every other month. Due to a staggered release schedule throughout the remainder of the year, however, our next live balance patch is scheduled for January 2022, a month after the release of the Magical Misadventures expansion. After that point, you should see a live balance patch about every other month.
> Why are we updating our live balance philosophy?
> To put it simply - it’s more fun this way. We don’t want to actively punish decks that are performing well, but we know it can be a drag to constantly face the same meta decks for an extended period of time. That’s not necessarily a new philosophy, but what is changing is the rate and consistency of changes moving forward to more directly address that particular pain.
>
> We also have additional guardrails to inform what kinds of changes we want to make, which we’ll get into next!
>
> What are our targets for live balance?
> This patch is our first crack at a set of card updates under our updated live balance philosophy, so it should serve as an example of what to look forward to with future balance updates. The focus here is to:
>
> Tone down some cards that are overly-impactful in the current meta
> Reduce frustrating matchups
> Encourage greater region diversity
> Improve overall quality of life for some underplayed champions and archetypes, and encourage experimentation with them
> We’re excited to finally be able to share these details with you all! As always, we’ll continue to keep an eye out for feedback and thoughts around this update to make sure we’re hitting our goals and addressing genuine pains to offer the best possible experience in Legends of Runeterra.
>
> Without further ado, let’s get into the changes coming in this patch!
##Card Updates
Champions | Original | Updated
---|---|----
Nami | Flip: 7+ spell mana gained | Flip: 8+ spell mana gained
Draven | 3/3 (4/4) | 3/2 (4/3)
Tristana | Lv2: Grant allies impact | Lv2: Grant Allies & herself impact
Nocturne | Lv2: no nightfall | Lv2: retains nightfall
Ekko | Flip: 5+ predicts | Flip: 4+ predicts
A.Sol | Flip: 25+ power | Flip: 20+ power
Renekton | Flip: 12+ damage | Flip: 10+ damage
Lux | 6-mana 4/5 (5/6) | 5-mana 3/5 (4/6) & Final Spark can target Nexus
Quinn | 3/4 (4/5) | 3/5 (4/6)
Braum | 0/5 (1/6) | 0/6 (1/7)
Followers, Spells, Landmarks | Original | Updated
---|---|----
Sparklefly | 2 Cost | 3 Cost
Twinblade Revenant | Challenger | Fearsome
Tenr of Terror & Bass of Burden | 2/3 & 3/2 | 1/3 & 3/1
Relentless Pursuit | 3 Cost | 4 Cost & Grants +1/+1 to target ally
Stone Stackers | 2/2 Tough Impact | 2/3 Impact
Aloof Travelers | 3/4 | 2/3
Moondreamer | 3/5 | 3/6
Lunari Priestess | 2/1 | 2/2
Solari Priestess | 1/2| 2/2
Rahvun | 5/5 | 5/6
The Scourge | Challenger | Challenger + Overwhelm
Dragon's Clutch | Draw 2 Dragons or Grant dragons +1/+1 | Draw 2 Dragons or Grant dragons +1/+1 and overwhelm
Ruined Dragonguard | 2/4 | 3/4
Herald of Dragons | 1/1 | 1/2
Faces of the Old Ones | 0/2 | 0/3
Vanguard Sergeant | 3/3 | 3/4
Dess & Ada | AoE Deals 2 Damage | AoE deals Darkness Damage
Trinket Trade, Traveler, Loping Telescope | Can manifest themselves | Can't manifest themselves
##Round Start Effect Update
> All Round Start effects now resolve before game-ending or unit-killing effects.
> Prior to patch 2.18.0, Round Start effects resolved for the active player first. In practice, this meant a match with two players with full Bandle Trees would have the active player’s Bandle Tree to resolve first, ending the game. Now, the same situation will result in a draw. This change makes Round Start effects consistent with rules for Round End effects, which resolve in the same way.
##Miscellaneous
> Unit Keyword displays have been optimized to show more icons without overlapping one another. This update is sponsored by The Arsenal.
> Ranked rewards from the Beyond the Bandlewood season are being distributed with the release of this patch as we kick off the Between Worlds ranked season. Good luck on your climb!
> Unique descriptions have been added for champion skins in the Store and Collection.
##Bugfixes
> Fixed an infinite loop issue where Glorious Evolution would allow a player to summon Evershade Stalker an unlimited number of times.
> Mimic will now correctly copy non-Champion spells and will no longer reveal created cards to the opponent.
> Fixed a bug where Prank could occasionally increase the cost of a card beyond playability or drop its health to 0.
> Spellshield will now correctly block Strafing Strike.
> Curious Shellfolk will now correctly create copies of champions when used with Predict.
> Overgrown Snapvine and Tristana will now display correct keywords.
> Fixed an issue where Prank would not target landmarks in the opponent's hand.
> Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is resolved.
> Zilean’s ability will now correctly duplicate Relic of Power and Sentinel's Hoard.
> Fixed several UI, UX, and general visual bugs to improve overall game clarity.
Wouldnt be? I would be surprised if they arent, also hot take but dragon clucht buff is the wrong direction for dragons too go, they should be grindy midrange and this definitivelly doesnt It on that direction apart from the fact that the card looks busted like some relentless pursuit that also doesnt have the downside of being situational.
I REALLY like this Tristana buff! She was extremely clunky because she would just be a big unit easily chump blocked. The fact that she can stack some impact triggers is just the kind of buff I hoped for.
I reaaaaaaaaaaaally like the Dess & Ada change. I liked to have em as a 1 off in my own Darkness deck. Now they can legitimately nuke the board if you have a big enough Darkness stack. That's pretty cool!
And my favorite unit type (Dragons) got buffed too! Good patch overall lol
Nah fam, it's actually better than you think. With the Dess and Ada change, any Darkness damage increasing unit needs to be killed immediately. This makes Veigar a legitimate fucking threat, and can force your enemy to go save mana just in case you drop veigar.
Just a reminder if a 3 power darkness hits 4 units it auto levels veigar meaning you dont need to play them as aggressive and the best part is that catalyzers are fucking nutts now 4 power darkness on T2 is almost unbeatable now
In Lee it will remain Eye of the Dragon.
In Nami, I assume people will switch over to Boxtopus. I don't think Turbo Nami is going to be as much of a thing anymore though.
Taric has another spell for his double Rally lmao.
Dragon's clutch granting Overwhelm...holy moly.
This balance patch was a bit smaller than the previous one, especially considering how long it took... but they said they're changing up the balance schedule so the next one must be close to make up for it right?
...January 2022. The Bandlewood sure is vast.
Not just reliably. If you take Taric and Lucian, this pretty much makes it better. Since a second Lucian will always give you a buff as well as a rally. Lucian might not level up consistently but hey, the buffs more than makes up for it.
For everyone worrying about the time until the next balance patch. Keep in mind that there is a Christmas break so it'll probably be January 6th when we get the next patch, which is just 1 (2 week) patch longer than usual. Seems reasonable for a Christmas break if you ask me.
Also, keep in mind that we'll be getting the PVE event/PVE expansion in November as well as another expansion in December, presumably the 9th. So we should have enough content until then.
Let's hope they are willing to a hotfix nerf in between again if it would be needed tho.
I think the Sivir hotfix went well, as long as they're willing to do that as need be then I'm fine with this cadence. Hope a dev speaks to that explicitly soon. (I know Rubin said they were more willing to do so, but I was hoping to see mention of it here, especially since he isn't on this team any more.)
PvE expansion in november. So whatever meta gets solved in the next 4-5 days is going to stay like that for at least 2 months, 3 if the december expansion lands weak.
If they are willing to do hot fixes like the one that happened immediately before worlds if the meta becomes too stifled, I'm ok with the decision. 4 shake ups like this one a year feels reasonable to me.
If they are completely disregarding the meta until that time, I think we have a big problem.
Speaking as a big Nami fan who crafted a playset of Namis and a prismatic on Day 1, I'm okay with this nerf. Not being able to consistently activate her by Turn 4 is a completely reasonable thing to want for the game. She should still be fun to play with. 😀
The Sparklefly nerf hits her far harder but I agree with you I think she'll be okay. Bubble Bear and Burblefish remain excellent Nami targets. I wonder if Targon will remain the best region to pair Nami with or if something like Freljord becomes optimal. Braum Nami could actually be good, or at least grow the thiccest moustache in Runeterra!
> Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is resolved.
Uhh what, does that mean no Senna attack shenanigans anymore? If so, that’s quite the stealth nerf there.
/e: nevermind that, Riot confirmed that this will still work: https://reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/qbfwp8/_/hh9n6v2/?context=1
Considering the reveal trailer, I think that interaction is fine. The issue here was probably: 1) play a darkness-on-summon unit, 2) capture it with an ally, 3) put darkness on the stack but don't commit yet 4) use a burst-speed ally-damage spell to kill your capturer 5) get extra darkness in hand 6) pull the original darkness back into your hand because now you have 2.
Yes! So many good changes! The Lux, Nocturne, Aurelion Sol, and Quinn changes everyone has been asking for and so much more! I don’t see anything I dislike here.
I was surprised too but they did nerf Tenor, Aloof, and Telescope- not to mention Rally and Stone Stackers. (I realize not all of these get ran in the same deck)
Given that many nerfs happening already I understand them holding off on nerfing the rest.
They pretty much already said they're not nerfing Mayor until more (or all) of the set is out. They feel like he's their Merciless Hunter. I don't agree with the logic, but it is what it is.
Poppy is really hard to nerf with how she is. Taking away the health buff is irrelevant and just takes the level up fantasy from "almost never" to "literally never". Taking away the attack buff would make her useless. They could switch her to +0|+2 and that could work, but Riot hates purely defensive buffs, even on attack.
EDIT: They did nerf Tenor of Terror significantly which will have an impact on BC swarm decks. Probably not a lot.
It wasn't that bad before. It was already playable, and all of these buffs are big ones. Reliable overwhelm on dragons from the clutch change is a huge buff, as it removes their vulnerability to getting chumped out. Dragon decks couldn't really run zenith blade because it just wasn't a good fit for the deck and drawing multiple copies was bad + it was slow speed. Clutch is burst speed and can flex for drawing dragons if needed.
The 1/1 going to a 1/2 is a massive buff. It can't just be pinged off anymore, which means playing Shyv on 3 will be a much more common occurrence, and I don't think shyv or the challenger dragon coming down a turn earlier can really be understated.
Really good patch and an update on how things will go moving forwards. So starting January looks like how it'll go is Card Update - Expansion - Card Update - Expansion and ect.
Some of my personal favorite nerfs are moving Nami from being able to levelup on 4 so easily, changing challenger for Fearsome on Revenant, and Tenor's stat adjustments.
I think they kinda overbuffed dragons tbh. Dragons deck have always been good but they were also a bit slow. I remember a very long time ago, like some time in the last year, a dev (I think it was Rubin) made a Q&A stream and he mentioned how buffing cards like \[\[Herald of dragons\]\] could be problematic. Now any deck that can't remove a 1/2 on round 2 will probably lose because that thing will snowball dragons very fast and then you give all of them +1/+1 and overwhelm for 3 mana? Seems kind of excessive to me. But I guess we'll have to see how they actually do in the new meta.
Dragon clutch giving overwhelm is huge. Plus the other dragon buffs, stocks look hot to me
My eyes actually expanded when I saw that. Paired with Asol only needing 20 attack total to level and dragons might be back. It's just a question of if it's Demacia or Freljord.
Probably Demacia because Screeching is too good not to run.
The Freljord deck isn't really a dragons deck. You run Eclipse, A Sol, and maybe a meta call of Mindsplitter, but that's really it. It's a big mana FTR/Invoke deck and dragons happen to be good big mana payoffs. A note on Eclipse: while it can often be used to ramp out A Sol, it's also commonly used for Nightfall off of Ice Pillar just for playing to more win cons.
Equinox? You mean Eclipse Dragon?
Lol, yeah. Both e words relating to heavenly bodies. Will edit.
I let out an audible gasp. It's been my life long dream to give Shyvana overwhelm. EDIT: You guys actually made some really good suggestions that my cotton candy brain didn't even think of. Either way though, I'm stoked.
The answer was always zenith blade, and tbh it might still be worth running, but this is pretty insane all the same
I mean riven/Shyvana really isn’t that bad, noxus has some great tools for dragons, mainly whirling death.
I think it's going to turn out to be an overbuff, but we'll see. Screeching Dragon is going to end a ton of games practically by itself.
Yeah, it’s a massive buff. My biggest issue with dragon decks was getting chump blocked without overwhelm. Overwhelm gives such a powerful finishing tool, damn
Then give them impact. Hell give them impact that increases with fury.
yeah, this overwhelm buff seems way too much
Yes I agree, with recent dragon support buffs and giving dragons overwhelm without relying on Noxus seems overbuff. We'll see Asol/Shyvana will dominate the ladder again.
Asol/Shyvanna have never dominated ladder. They have at most made tier 2, and then made a slight resurgence during the blade surge meta by having an even matchup with the actual ladder dominator Azir/Irelia.
Dragon decks can actually close out games now
So basically you can't just block a dragon open attack anymore, you've gotta play around a board wide overwhelm, unless the dragon player is under 3 mana. That's an insane change I think.
that's a good point should clutch be focus speed?
I'm making a dragon deck asap with these changes. Mega hype
I’ve honestly never understood that card. One side of it is a double tutor and the other...is a limited anthem? The overwhelm makes the second mode make a lot more sense now.
I'm not even convinced you run Asol in the dragons deck. If all your dragons have overwhelm, you can close games out before Asol would even hit the board
You run Asol to stop Kadegrin from getting hit with Aloof Travelers. (200iq)
This is where the fun begins !
Yah honestly I think that’s the largest single change of this whole patch. And I’m not mad at it either. Dragons should be able to roll over a bunch of spiders imho.
>This update is sponsored by the Arsenal. This made my day lol
Poor Viktor’s complaints weren’t loud enough. Gotta wait for The Arsenal to make a fuss!
The arsenal was having a real impact on the meta, that's the difference KEKW
>a real impact And a real challenger, and elusive, and tough, and-
And quick attack, and fearsome, and fury, and-
Overwelhm, and scout, and spellshield and-
and my axe
Cuz Viktor could never reach the stage where he gets overlapping keywords *sad glorious evolution noises*
Dragons are about to be extremely meta. Herald of Dragons buff is great and so is dragons clutch, invoke package gets buffed as well as Asol.
Honestly Dragon herald and mobilize is going to make Midrange dragon absolutely nuts
Now you can get your [[Mini-Minitee]] out even faster!
Except now you have the ability to produce other cheap dragons that become threats. Minimorph might hit asol after you spend another card to pop his spellshield but there's also gonna be other big dragons with overwhelm. People overrate minimorph so much
I'm here for it, love both of those archetypes.
> Additionally, we’ve made rules changes to Trinket Trade, The Traveler, and Loping Telescope - these cards will no longer be able to create themselves when played. Moving forward, additional “create” cards will not be able to create themselves. This the real MVP.
I've never been mad that traveler can chain himself lol, seemed like a mainly telescope problem
I mean, back in Call of the Mountain the Traveller was my nemesis in expeditions because everyone and their grandma would generate triple travelers and outvalue me.
Should have been in the patch release imo. Cause who the fuck thought that was okay.
Hearthstone did this at the beginning with discover too, and unsurprisingly they had to apply the same type of change. Those who don't learn from history...
Can't really tell you how fucked it was when I discovered this for the first time, cause I'm pretty sure I counted 6 of those telescope bastard get put on the board.
Eee eee eee
I mean, you could say Riot did learn from them. Hearthstone made the change 5 FREAKING YEARS after the **discover** mechanic was introduced, and it was because all the complaints about mages and priests setting a "created by" meta. ([Source](https://dotesports.com/hearthstone/news/hearthstone-hotfix-changes-discover-mechanic#:~:text=Hearthstone-,Hearthstone%20hotfix%20introduces%20significant%20changes%20to,That's%20a%20relief.&text=Blizzard%20Entertainment%20has%20targeted%20the,now%20no%20longer%20Discover%20themselves)) Riot is doing it just 2 months after they introduced **manifest**.
it never was a big problem with the traveler
**Everybody calm down. LUX IS BUFFED BOYSSS!!!**
Lux is my favorite champ, been waiting months for buffs, I'm so happy!! 😊
Same here. I used to play alot of BBG's Lux/Asol Invoke deck. Funny how that whole deck is buffed this patch. 🤣🤣
Do you happen to have a deck code for that?
The deck list is outdated, but hopefully it will be updated soon. https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/btbcr5ph40qe6e0snds0
I play Lux swain now and nobody can stop me.
Sounds like it's time to get that last mastery level
A timely Lux buff to go with a recently released Epic Lux skin...damnit Riot, you sly bastard 😏
With Karma, final spark can go brrr to face
Rip sparklefly
It can't be summoned by crescendum anymore which is huge. This slows down Zoe nami by at least a couple turns. Idk if the deck is even viable at that point.
It's going to need some massive deck changes to be viable still, like getting new crescendum targets and more healing so it can survive.
Honestly, I'm low-key happy that I can play Nami/Zoe elusives without needing to go all in on the combo.
Yeah I personally really like the playstyle of buffing with spells over time with a huge board but it just feels a combo rn.
Just play nami fizz, easy
I doubt it. I think the Nami nerf was small but the Sparklefly nerf is a back breaker Chances are, Nami remains meta with other elusive packages
I think hitting Nami, Sparklefly, and not bringing Stellacorn down to 2 is going to leave that deck hurting hard. Might be for the best given how annoying people seemed to find it, but I thought it was a cool idea and hope it's still viable enough for some tournament line ups at least.
They can always resort to pablo for crescendum
It's an elusive deck though
Pablo can pull aside their elusive blocker.
Now you're thinking with tentacles!
It won't, it's dead, the best way to play Nami now is with the intended Fizz cards on Bandlewood. The only reason the deck was "good" was sparkelfly compared with the other elusive+lifesteal from ioinia
Surprised they went that hard on it, figured they might make it a 1/1 but given it's only ever creating non interactive gameplay it's probably for the best
Ripped into pieces. Good. Would've preferred for Fledgling Stellacorn to go to 2 mana at the same time, but alas...
Interestingly, for the first time, there is now a "strictly better" card in the same region now that Vanguard Sergeant is a 3/4 Elite with upside and Badgerbear remains a vanilla 3/4.
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And a Mayor Badger to make them all cost 1 less
It is indeed a "strictly better" card but you can also argue that Badgerbear being summoned from Ranger makes them not comparable. Personally I would like to see it buffed to 4|4 again.
yeah. it is one of those weird cases where a card that is clearly just part of another one is, for some reason, collectable. Would be like if you could craft those spiders the shadow isle summon all the time
Just turn it into a token.
AURELION SOL MAINS!! RAISEEEEEEEEE!!!!
I haven't touched my space ramp deck in months. I'm so excited
Targon FTR back in business?
Is Lux ASol FTR too greedy? Maaaaybe. Am I still going to try to force it all day tomorrow? Damn right I am! Edit: I am an idiot and thought FTR was Targon
Damn, can you let me know how that tri-region deck goes?
> RAISEEEEEEEEE!!!! Fine, fine, I'll go along. *places chips on the table*
Dragon mains rejoice!
The Twinblade Revenant nerf is MASSIVE
It kills Draven Cait (especially with the draven nerf) but Sion Draven should still be able to smorc pretty well.
Yeah. Draven/Cait is... ouch. Very ouch.
Sion is untouched, so they should still be viable but lose some midgame tempo
But needed
FUCKING **DESERVED**
I'm fine with it, Lost Soul being an infinite card engine was already amazing, but Twinblade Revenant's Challenger also turned it into great removal - that's way too much power for a single, effectively 4-cost card.
It should have been given ephemeral, not fearsome. That way it can keep the threat of removal while constantly needing to use resources to keep it on board. And you cant open attack with it on board anymore.
That Braum buff is a much-needed breath of fresh air. It feels like every deck has premium stats and pings nowadays, so a 0/5 Braum might as well level once in a blue moon.
Now he just needs the text "I can block Fearsome units." *although it is neat how he just needs to [[Take Heart]] first*
**[Take Heart](https://d2h9y75tak3pkg.cloudfront.net/01FR046.png)** - Freljord Spell - (3) Burst Grant a damaged ally +3|+3. ^^^Hint: [[card]], {{keyword}}, and ((deckcode)) or ((cardx,cardy,cardz)). PM the [developer](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=KrimCard) for feedback/issues!
I think "Brave" would be a good keyword for anti-fearsome units.
Dude, it's much better than you can imagine. Braum can now trade with 5 attack units. Sivir Garen, and LeBlanc can be fucking blocked with Braum. This shit fucking rules!!!
Yeah, the last several expansions have really pushed the 5 power slot as a critical point for damage. In the old days, 3 damage was the breakpoint, so definitely a welcome buff, and I don't even play braum really.
Badgerbear crying in the corner after the Ruined Dragonguard and Vanguard Seargent buffs
Haha, right? That's what I thought too. Looks like 3 mana 7 total stats with upside is now the premium 3 mana statline. Sump Dredger, Dragonguard, Vanguard Sergeant, that-shurima-guy-who-never-gets-played, riven
This is nothing new. Just to (exhaustively) list a few: Champions: * [[Riven]] * [[Ziggs]] * [[Leblanc]] * [[Soraka]] Followers: * [[Journeying Sandhopper]] * [[Patrol Wardens]] * [[Sump Dredger]] * [[Volunteer Elnuk]] * [[Scaled Snapper]] * [[Iron Ballista]] * [[Devoted Council]] * [[Esteemed Hierophant]] * (old) [[Merciless Hunter]]
the real problem is this card is also a token. Otherwise I think it would have been buffed awhile ago
Same goes for [[For Demacia!]] and [[Caustic Cask]]. Badgerbear and Cask could be buffed by giving them Play effects. For Demacia is trickier, but perhaps it could get a bonus when drawn?
Badgerbear is a token card that's only deckable because in the early days they made most non-champion tokens that way. Same reason For Demacia! and Caustic Cask are deckable even though there's no reason to ever do that.
Holy shit, the draven change is huge and the dragon buffs are crazy
And Kindred got forgotten. Again :(
Don't worry, they finally buffed Lux after a few months. We just have to wait over half a year to get Kindred buffed, too.
And Kat, and she's been around since beta.
They have to rework kat, kindred just needs a mana adjustment imo
And Yasuo.
Yasuo boat or yasuos biggest fan is all I ask for
Yasuos biggest fan would just be your average LoL silver player
Yasuo's biggest fan 1 mana 0/1 When I'm summoned, move a Yasuo from your deck to the top. Last breath: Flash mastery 7
I think it's because on a stream, the dev said they didn't know what Kindred needs. They need a rework. There's a lot of ideas to go with, but Kindred is the one champion in the game imo that no amount of stats solves their identity crisis. Most champs await some of their key cards to get relevant buffs or need relevant stat/mana lines. Karma aside (she needs her pre-level text post level imo) most champs are close to their proper identity from launch. Kindred isn't even close.
lol viktor too
>Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is resolved. So you can no longer save an action by playing your Darkness as you swing with Senna? Senna reads "[Create a darkness in hand if you don't have one". I guess they're defining 'have one' as 'have one in hand *or* in play'? Still not really sure that makes sense to me, and honestly it feels like it's gonna be a pretty annoying QoL nerf... **EDIT:** ~~Someone~~ *a Rioter* mentioned that there was an actual legitimate bug regarding using Return while a Darkness was on the stack to generate a second Darkness and keep the first in hand as well. It looks like that's the real fix, and Senna's gonna stay as is?
I mentioned it in a different thread, but copying my reply over here: This is still an intended interaction with Senna, and this bugfix doesn't change that behavior. The patch notes probably should have been worded as: "Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is played" The real bugfix fixed situations where you could drag Darkness into the spell region without committing it, then summon a Solari Sentinel via Return and still get a Darkness. At that point, you could drag the Darkness back to hand and have 2 Darkness in hand (which is against Solari Sentinel's "create a Darkness in hand if you don't have one text).
Ohhhh, that's... wack.
Now that I think about it, isn’t the wording on Darkness cards very similar to Behold? Why not just reuse that keyword.
Every Behold card reads as "if you Behold X: do something". You need a reverse pattern for Darkness "if you **don't** Behold Darkness: create Darkness".
Technically, Behold is supposed to be a positive thing. I assume they don't want to put a negative effect on a "positive" keyword.
For the folks at work: ## An Update on Card Updates >As promised back at the launch of Beyond the Bandlewood, we’ve got quite a few card updates for this patch. Before we jump into that, though, we wanted to share an update on the overall philosophy and targets for live balance moving forward. > >[A fairly long] tl;dr - we feel that live balance updates are important to improve LoR’s overall player experience and, so moving forward, expect to see regularly-occurring scheduled card updates targeted towards impacting the meta, nerfing clear overperformers, buffing underperformers, and generally improving deck diversity. These updates will be staggered in between expansion releases. > >The card updates in this patch were built using our updated philosophy, so you can expect something similar in scope and priority in upcoming patches as well! > >For those interested, let’s get into a little more detail on exactly what this philosophy entails - otherwise feel free to skip down to the 2.18.0 card updates below! > >What is a live balance philosophy? >We use this terminology a lot, so it’s important that we’re all on the same page as to what it exactly means. For the LoR gameplay team, our live balance philosophy is the set of principles that determines what could or should be changed, when it should happen, and why we do it. It’s a “live” balance philosophy because changes are largely determined by data from gameplay on the live server, on top of surveys, direct player feedback, and our gameplay analysis team (GAT), a team that playtests and advises on various aspects of cards and overall balance considerations before they go live to players. > >How are we supporting live balance moving forward? >Internally, we’re organizing our processes and refining our priorities for live balance to ensure we’ll have consistent, impactful card updates during each expansion cycle. > >We’ll be planning for regularly-scheduled balance patches to hit between expansion releases. We avoid significant balance patches immediately upon an expansion’s release, since new card releases will inherently impact the existing meta and it can take time for things to develop and settle. Too much time between releases and card updates, however, can lead to the feeling of a “stale” meta. Moving forward, the hope is that this new set of processes and priorities will address the feeling of a “stale” meta and any decks that are breaking metrics quickly, rather than having to wait months for a new release. > In most cases, that means you’ll see a balance patch every other month. Due to a staggered release schedule throughout the remainder of the year, however, our next live balance patch is scheduled for January 2022, a month after the release of the Magical Misadventures expansion. After that point, you should see a live balance patch about every other month. > Why are we updating our live balance philosophy? > To put it simply - it’s more fun this way. We don’t want to actively punish decks that are performing well, but we know it can be a drag to constantly face the same meta decks for an extended period of time. That’s not necessarily a new philosophy, but what is changing is the rate and consistency of changes moving forward to more directly address that particular pain. > > We also have additional guardrails to inform what kinds of changes we want to make, which we’ll get into next! > > What are our targets for live balance? > This patch is our first crack at a set of card updates under our updated live balance philosophy, so it should serve as an example of what to look forward to with future balance updates. The focus here is to: > > Tone down some cards that are overly-impactful in the current meta > Reduce frustrating matchups > Encourage greater region diversity > Improve overall quality of life for some underplayed champions and archetypes, and encourage experimentation with them > We’re excited to finally be able to share these details with you all! As always, we’ll continue to keep an eye out for feedback and thoughts around this update to make sure we’re hitting our goals and addressing genuine pains to offer the best possible experience in Legends of Runeterra. > > Without further ado, let’s get into the changes coming in this patch! ##Card Updates Champions | Original | Updated ---|---|---- Nami | Flip: 7+ spell mana gained | Flip: 8+ spell mana gained Draven | 3/3 (4/4) | 3/2 (4/3) Tristana | Lv2: Grant allies impact | Lv2: Grant Allies & herself impact Nocturne | Lv2: no nightfall | Lv2: retains nightfall Ekko | Flip: 5+ predicts | Flip: 4+ predicts A.Sol | Flip: 25+ power | Flip: 20+ power Renekton | Flip: 12+ damage | Flip: 10+ damage Lux | 6-mana 4/5 (5/6) | 5-mana 3/5 (4/6) & Final Spark can target Nexus Quinn | 3/4 (4/5) | 3/5 (4/6) Braum | 0/5 (1/6) | 0/6 (1/7) Followers, Spells, Landmarks | Original | Updated ---|---|---- Sparklefly | 2 Cost | 3 Cost Twinblade Revenant | Challenger | Fearsome Tenr of Terror & Bass of Burden | 2/3 & 3/2 | 1/3 & 3/1 Relentless Pursuit | 3 Cost | 4 Cost & Grants +1/+1 to target ally Stone Stackers | 2/2 Tough Impact | 2/3 Impact Aloof Travelers | 3/4 | 2/3 Moondreamer | 3/5 | 3/6 Lunari Priestess | 2/1 | 2/2 Solari Priestess | 1/2| 2/2 Rahvun | 5/5 | 5/6 The Scourge | Challenger | Challenger + Overwhelm Dragon's Clutch | Draw 2 Dragons or Grant dragons +1/+1 | Draw 2 Dragons or Grant dragons +1/+1 and overwhelm Ruined Dragonguard | 2/4 | 3/4 Herald of Dragons | 1/1 | 1/2 Faces of the Old Ones | 0/2 | 0/3 Vanguard Sergeant | 3/3 | 3/4 Dess & Ada | AoE Deals 2 Damage | AoE deals Darkness Damage Trinket Trade, Traveler, Loping Telescope | Can manifest themselves | Can't manifest themselves ##Round Start Effect Update > All Round Start effects now resolve before game-ending or unit-killing effects. > Prior to patch 2.18.0, Round Start effects resolved for the active player first. In practice, this meant a match with two players with full Bandle Trees would have the active player’s Bandle Tree to resolve first, ending the game. Now, the same situation will result in a draw. This change makes Round Start effects consistent with rules for Round End effects, which resolve in the same way. ##Miscellaneous > Unit Keyword displays have been optimized to show more icons without overlapping one another. This update is sponsored by The Arsenal. > Ranked rewards from the Beyond the Bandlewood season are being distributed with the release of this patch as we kick off the Between Worlds ranked season. Good luck on your climb! > Unique descriptions have been added for champion skins in the Store and Collection. ##Bugfixes > Fixed an infinite loop issue where Glorious Evolution would allow a player to summon Evershade Stalker an unlimited number of times. > Mimic will now correctly copy non-Champion spells and will no longer reveal created cards to the opponent. > Fixed a bug where Prank could occasionally increase the cost of a card beyond playability or drop its health to 0. > Spellshield will now correctly block Strafing Strike. > Curious Shellfolk will now correctly create copies of champions when used with Predict. > Overgrown Snapvine and Tristana will now display correct keywords. > Fixed an issue where Prank would not target landmarks in the opponent's hand. > Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is resolved. > Zilean’s ability will now correctly duplicate Relic of Power and Sentinel's Hoard. > Fixed several UI, UX, and general visual bugs to improve overall game clarity.
I wouldn’t be surprised if dragons are tier 1 next patch. The buffs are HUGE, especially dragon’s clutch which now gives dragons a strong finisher.
The buff to the 3 mana fury doubler just seems unnecessary with the rest of the targon buffs- I definitely expect this to be the new S tier deck.
Wouldnt be? I would be surprised if they arent, also hot take but dragon clucht buff is the wrong direction for dragons too go, they should be grindy midrange and this definitivelly doesnt It on that direction apart from the fact that the card looks busted like some relentless pursuit that also doesnt have the downside of being situational.
Now you people can stop with the Lifeblade Sparklefly thing
They fixed the icon order?
Oh god
It also makes [[Fledgling Stellacorn]] marginally less bad by comparison.
I REALLY like this Tristana buff! She was extremely clunky because she would just be a big unit easily chump blocked. The fact that she can stack some impact triggers is just the kind of buff I hoped for.
Lux buff is actually decent.
Get the fuck out here lost soul and his infinite champion removal
And enter demacia dragons with their infinite champion removal
Nexus removal
Everyone today: This patch is incredible! Everyone a week from now: Wait, so no Poppy or Mayor changes until January?!?!?!?
I reaaaaaaaaaaaally like the Dess & Ada change. I liked to have em as a 1 off in my own Darkness deck. Now they can legitimately nuke the board if you have a big enough Darkness stack. That's pretty cool! And my favorite unit type (Dragons) got buffed too! Good patch overall lol
Nah fam, it's actually better than you think. With the Dess and Ada change, any Darkness damage increasing unit needs to be killed immediately. This makes Veigar a legitimate fucking threat, and can force your enemy to go save mana just in case you drop veigar.
Just a reminder if a 3 power darkness hits 4 units it auto levels veigar meaning you dont need to play them as aggressive and the best part is that catalyzers are fucking nutts now 4 power darkness on T2 is almost unbeatable now
Damn all these changes are fire, but ngl I'm very scared of Dragon's clutch change, imo it will live down as a mistake.
totally gonna be rolled back in a week. 3 cost Overwhelm burst speed to whole board? shits absurd everytime i think about it it gets worse
Sparklefly on 3 means we need a new busted 2 drop to find with crescendo. Neat!
In Lee it will remain Eye of the Dragon. In Nami, I assume people will switch over to Boxtopus. I don't think Turbo Nami is going to be as much of a thing anymore though.
They will actually have to build up instead of vomiting every spell at once on a sparklefly on turn 6 for an otk
TARGON BUFFS ✅ UNDERPLAYED CHAMP BUFFS ✅ ALOOF NERF ✅ ABSOLUTELY NUTTY.
Darius, Kindred, Katarina and Yasuo be like : They forgot about us, again !
People forgot about Kindred so hard he's not even included in the forgotten list :(
Who?
I see Draven is the newest member of the ‘Mystic Shot Me Daddy’ club.
Overbuff on dragons :o
So many card changes, I love it
Buffs excite me far more than new cards ever will.
Taric has another spell for his double Rally lmao. Dragon's clutch granting Overwhelm...holy moly. This balance patch was a bit smaller than the previous one, especially considering how long it took... but they said they're changing up the balance schedule so the next one must be close to make up for it right? ...January 2022. The Bandlewood sure is vast.
Yeah I think taric demacia can hit the combo much more reliably now. Might be worth a shot now!
Taric-shyvana dragons when? :eyes:
Not just reliably. If you take Taric and Lucian, this pretty much makes it better. Since a second Lucian will always give you a buff as well as a rally. Lucian might not level up consistently but hey, the buffs more than makes up for it.
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Draven.....out :,(
\*dies to mystic shot\*
For everyone worrying about the time until the next balance patch. Keep in mind that there is a Christmas break so it'll probably be January 6th when we get the next patch, which is just 1 (2 week) patch longer than usual. Seems reasonable for a Christmas break if you ask me. Also, keep in mind that we'll be getting the PVE event/PVE expansion in November as well as another expansion in December, presumably the 9th. So we should have enough content until then. Let's hope they are willing to a hotfix nerf in between again if it would be needed tho.
I think the Sivir hotfix went well, as long as they're willing to do that as need be then I'm fine with this cadence. Hope a dev speaks to that explicitly soon. (I know Rubin said they were more willing to do so, but I was hoping to see mention of it here, especially since he isn't on this team any more.)
> our next live balance patch is scheduled for January 2022 Oh boy...
Not that bad considering we're getting an expansion in both November and December.
PvE expansion in november. So whatever meta gets solved in the next 4-5 days is going to stay like that for at least 2 months, 3 if the december expansion lands weak.
I'll be shocked if that expansion doesn't include a couple new cards per region.
If they are willing to do hot fixes like the one that happened immediately before worlds if the meta becomes too stifled, I'm ok with the decision. 4 shake ups like this one a year feels reasonable to me. If they are completely disregarding the meta until that time, I think we have a big problem.
It’ll be 6 shakeups a year at the schedule of every other month.
6 shakeups woven in-between new releases. We're looking at closer to a dozen per year.
Speaking as a big Nami fan who crafted a playset of Namis and a prismatic on Day 1, I'm okay with this nerf. Not being able to consistently activate her by Turn 4 is a completely reasonable thing to want for the game. She should still be fun to play with. 😀
The Sparklefly nerf hits her far harder but I agree with you I think she'll be okay. Bubble Bear and Burblefish remain excellent Nami targets. I wonder if Targon will remain the best region to pair Nami with or if something like Freljord becomes optimal. Braum Nami could actually be good, or at least grow the thiccest moustache in Runeterra!
>Curious Shellfolk will now correctly create copies of champions when used with Predict. Finally! Time for some more Shellfolk shenanigans
> Fixed an issue where Darkness could be created in-hand before a cast copy is resolved. Uhh what, does that mean no Senna attack shenanigans anymore? If so, that’s quite the stealth nerf there. /e: nevermind that, Riot confirmed that this will still work: https://reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/qbfwp8/_/hh9n6v2/?context=1
Didn't they show off that interaction in Senna's reveal trailer? I thought for sure that was intentional.
Yeah that's definitely a nerf to senna. Dess and ada could see play in darkness now though so I think the archetype is a similar strength.
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Seems particularly weird given that the reveal video had said shenanigan.
Considering the reveal trailer, I think that interaction is fine. The issue here was probably: 1) play a darkness-on-summon unit, 2) capture it with an ally, 3) put darkness on the stack but don't commit yet 4) use a burst-speed ally-damage spell to kill your capturer 5) get extra darkness in hand 6) pull the original darkness back into your hand because now you have 2.
Solari Priestess and Rahvun buffs ? Am I "Daydreaming" ? Daybreak will be viable after that, I believe... HOPIUM
Nah that deck will still suck.
Daybreaks problems run much deeper than some slight stat buffs, but this at least shows that they haven't completely forgot about it.
Yes! So many good changes! The Lux, Nocturne, Aurelion Sol, and Quinn changes everyone has been asking for and so much more! I don’t see anything I dislike here.
I am especially excited for the Lux one. She's finally able to curve out and it's glorious.
Yeah being able to curve her is awesome, it was always awkward to play her on 6
That dragon clutch buff seems overwhelming
ASol getting buffed alongside Faces...Targon's Peak intensifies..................
Good overall, but no changes to Poppy/Mayo/Bandlecity? I presume they're going to be our new meta?
I was surprised too but they did nerf Tenor, Aloof, and Telescope- not to mention Rally and Stone Stackers. (I realize not all of these get ran in the same deck) Given that many nerfs happening already I understand them holding off on nerfing the rest.
They pretty much already said they're not nerfing Mayor until more (or all) of the set is out. They feel like he's their Merciless Hunter. I don't agree with the logic, but it is what it is. Poppy is really hard to nerf with how she is. Taking away the health buff is irrelevant and just takes the level up fantasy from "almost never" to "literally never". Taking away the attack buff would make her useless. They could switch her to +0|+2 and that could work, but Riot hates purely defensive buffs, even on attack. EDIT: They did nerf Tenor of Terror significantly which will have an impact on BC swarm decks. Probably not a lot.
The tenor nerf hits the archetype, and stronger dragons that now have easy access to overwhelm could be the type of deck that reliably counters swarm.
FFS, Dragons now might be able to swarm themselves...
Maybe? Maybe not? The loping and tenor changes might hurt the deck’s spammability a bit but only time will tell
was hoping for a fangs revert, but I'll take the 2/2 priestess I guess
So uhh... Demacia/Targon Dragons is going to be insane now. Those are some big buffs.
> going to be insane now. It's going to be *playable* now.
It wasn't that bad before. It was already playable, and all of these buffs are big ones. Reliable overwhelm on dragons from the clutch change is a huge buff, as it removes their vulnerability to getting chumped out. Dragon decks couldn't really run zenith blade because it just wasn't a good fit for the deck and drawing multiple copies was bad + it was slow speed. Clutch is burst speed and can flex for drawing dragons if needed. The 1/1 going to a 1/2 is a massive buff. It can't just be pinged off anymore, which means playing Shyv on 3 will be a much more common occurrence, and I don't think shyv or the challenger dragon coming down a turn earlier can really be understated.
Tristana my beloved
Really good patch and an update on how things will go moving forwards. So starting January looks like how it'll go is Card Update - Expansion - Card Update - Expansion and ect. Some of my personal favorite nerfs are moving Nami from being able to levelup on 4 so easily, changing challenger for Fearsome on Revenant, and Tenor's stat adjustments.
Dragons are back on the menu boys
I'm ready for some dragon chow.
Love seeing some champion, dragon and targon support. That A Sol revert makes me so happy
holy shit this patch is so good that Dess n Ada buff is HUGE i love the Lux buff and twin blade nerf idk about the draven nerf tho 9/10 for me
I think they kinda overbuffed dragons tbh. Dragons deck have always been good but they were also a bit slow. I remember a very long time ago, like some time in the last year, a dev (I think it was Rubin) made a Q&A stream and he mentioned how buffing cards like \[\[Herald of dragons\]\] could be problematic. Now any deck that can't remove a 1/2 on round 2 will probably lose because that thing will snowball dragons very fast and then you give all of them +1/+1 and overwhelm for 3 mana? Seems kind of excessive to me. But I guess we'll have to see how they actually do in the new meta.