[2022] It's ok to complain, but...

Originally posted by TheVictoryXD

My favourite decks are always homebrews, I avoid the meta like the plague. Which does get me into some issues I'd like to bring up if you have the time?

I find it really tough to get homebrews to work in LoR, which comes down to a number of factors.

1. The sets you release all tend to have certain pre-built decks baked in. It's less of an issue with this most recent set, but there are a few older archetypes that are very inflexible which really should be looked at. Case in point, Tahm Kench. Released pre-built with Soraka, to the point that even his followers don't really adhere to the Kench's personal game plan. The pairing with Demacia in his reveal trailer mislead me into thinking Kench could be played with Demacia, which he can't. Without the Star Spring win condition, he doesn't survive long enough for a more ordinary win condition.

2. The generosity of the game makes netdecking a breeze. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but it gets to the point where I'm seeing competitive decks in normal queue where I'm trying to brew memey decks. In more balanced metas that's okay, I can take a sub-50% winrate. During Azirelia and the Poppy meta though, I would go through entire days without claiming the 1st win bonus at all. I deleted the game during Azirelia. I've adopted the healthier mindset of brewing stuff to counter the meta, but it's a lot less enjoyable that way.

3. Every expansion, LoR seems to follow the trend of speeding the game up and making the game much less interactive. Kai'sa more or less ends the game by turn 6/7 with no recourse, continual stats from Bard means lower cost removal options are no good and I need to have Vengeance/Ruination to regain any foothold, etc. This is probably the complaint flooding the subreddit right now so I won't get into it further. I get it, the game is just following the same trend LoL and TFT are going through. Riot's games are meant to be casual and fun, and shorter game times facilitate that feel. But that really isn't conducive for homebrewing interesting combos.

Now these issues are entirely specific to me as a homebrewer, so I get it if most if it doesn't align with what the LoR team wants from the game. But I just thought since a dev is here, I'd just lay it out and try my luck.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Originally posted by dennaneedslove

I think it’s more about wanting variation of flavour.

Evolve sounds cool until the realisation that the pay off is just stats + pantheon. We’ve seen that already with pantheon, arsenal, victor, deep, elite decks etc. Sure there will be people who love evolve for what it is, and it offers different deckbuilding with keywords, but the pay off is pretty bland because we’ve already seen it. +2/+2 is hardly creative nor is keyword soup

I have to say hearthstone is way ahead of lor when it comes to creative cards and mechanics. Many of recent lor designs are just extra stats. Evolve is +2 stats, hallowed is +1 attack, tentacle is just “go tall and give overwhelm”, udyr is mostly a means to give pile of stats + keyword, galio gives +health, and so on. There are obviously more interesting champions, but it gets a bit concerning when it seems like design is stagnating. And that is truly a shame because lor has much more skill expression compared to hearthstone but hearthstone is much more creative. And no I’m not just talking about hs rng meme, riot could learn a lot about creative mechanics by looking at hs’ latest expansion and card designs they have shown

Originally posted by Uni_Bro

Hi! I’m not super competitive but I really like fated decks because you’re sticking with one unit and you’re protecting it at all cost; like a very good friend! Maybe we can have champions like nunu and willump, or ivern and daisy that benefit from both of them staying alive

Originally posted by SherlockFish

i think I’d say asol invoke control. Space puppy is best puppy

I love the invoke control decks that invoke a lot and outvalue but they havent been good in a while. I also liked the combat oriented midrange decks kinda like old shen fiora…. But it just feels like bard does most midrange decks better…..

Originally posted by spoonfighter

My favorite deck to play is still Soraka/Braum Starsprings. I like taking alternate ways of archetypes and strategies. Freljord gives Starspring some board control, accelerates Starspring really fast from Regen and even alternate wincons by granting overwhelm to otherwise chump blockable units. The deck doesn't always feel good, but every once in a while there's a meta where I won't get stomped every game I play it.

Originally posted by BluePantera

I like shrooms and traps, but I'm left wondering why these decks are often forgotten? They have gotten support here and there, even some nice buffs recently, but no matter what the archetype is never meta. It's just too weak and unpredictable. I think a slight nudge in the right direction can make these decks playable in ranked

Originally posted by The_Fatman_Eats

Lux | TF "Spellslinger" (Control) -- It's delightful how much connective tissue there is to be found between the two champs using cards like Avatar of the Tides and Ebb. Fantastic designs all around. Game typically ends with my leveled champion(s) picking apart the opponent's board and\or a wide board buffed by For Demacia! smorc.

Heimer | Jayce | Kindred "Shadowrun" (Control) -- A janky blend between Sentinel Control and Dark Tech with the win conditions of neither, the deck mostly focuses on getting value out of overstatted units that are hard to block (the two Sentinels and Hextech Handler) in the early- to mid-game. Typically wins via Acceleration Gate and\or swarming with thicc turrets off the back of a flurry of removal.

Gwen | Vi "Belles of the Ball" (Control) -- My latest addition, this deck seeks to TWE without TWE, using Hallowed to "cheat" at Vi's level up minigame. With backup plans of The Undying and Minion to generate piles of value, the deck typically wins by burning through the opponent's resources and "forgetting" to run Atrocity... though a leveled VI next to a leveled Gwen certainly does the job faster.

You may have noticed a pattern here. Yes, yes... my decks all unga-bunga go face. These are the sorts of things I like, since you asked.

The decks I've listed above are consistent, functional decks with a cohesive gameplan that is both flexible and dynamic. Those decks are also horrible in every meta they could be played in. They're not fast enough to race, but don't have enough removal to slow down the faster decks. More importantly, they lack much in the way of "Go Fish" functions -- the "either you have an answer, or you die" plays; the closest you get is something like For Demacia! or Acceleration Gate on a wide board, but those boards aren't packed full of Elusive or Overwhelm units, so a great deal of setup (e.g., interacting with the opponent's board) is often required to threaten lethal.

I'm concerned that the design philosophy of LoR is perfectly fine with all of that.

Originally posted by Edwerd_

I wish tahm kench became a relinquished like in yugioh and gained the stats of the creature it captured because I love relinquished and the thousand eyes restrict archetype 😔

Originally posted by TheRealTowel

Hey Dan, just wanted to let you know that I for one love the design of all 3 champs you just released! Balance wise I think Kai'sa could use a nerf and Evelynn could use a buff (preferably to her origin so it actually does something), but I've been playing all 3 and they are just fundamentally fun which is the main thing.

My favorite deck so far this expansion is Gwen/Bard. They pair really satisfyingy, Ghostly Paramour and Eternal Dancers are bonkers good once a couple of chimes hit them and Esmus is amazing with Hallowed.

Originally posted by SherlockFish

So if we agree that invoking is good, can give some targon buffs so our favorite space puppy sees more play? I’m willing to even give a kidney, and even throw in a first born child

Originally posted by Edwerd_

Nah I fusion summom it with polymorization and go -3 in card advantage like a GIGACHAD

Originally posted by Powder_Keg

I guess the other game I've played the most of is HS so I'll mainly talk about that, but there's also a little MTG ideas here too:

• Defensive keywords (and perhaps distinguish them from other randomly gainable keywords?), such as:

1. Sharpsight's effect as it's own keyword
2. Something that negates quick attack
3. Something that lets you block two enemies (functionally, they could be like 'Colossal' size, which makes them take up two unit spaces. Then when assigning you place them under two attackers. When they attack, the enemy unit who is defending would be centered under them.)
4. Something like reverse quick attack, though instead of the unit dealing their attack damage to the attacking unit, just whatever amount they have of this keyword (which would stack like Impact does), or a predetermined amount like just 1 damage.
5. Some type of "taunt" which make it so you must challenge that unit before you can challenge any other. Or, perhaps something that makes the unit take damage in place of your Nexus (like Bolf Ramshield from HS)

• Units that activate abilities/skills when either the enemy attacks or when that unit blocks. For example:

1. "When enemies attack, kill me to activate skill: "deal 1 to all battling units," or "give me tough this round"
2. "When I defend, heal your nexus 3"

• Cards that synergize with big spells, e.g. in Hearthstone they have stuff that draws you a spell and summons a minion with stats equal to its cost.

• Big-unit support, i.e. some type of deck which controls the board early in order to later start dropping expensive cost units.

• Something like "Time Out" or "Ice Block" from Hearthstone, which could be something like survival skills on your nexus for one turn.

• Cards with inherent deck building restrictions - like "even cost only" or "odd cost only" decks.

• Quests and Miniquests - spells which do nothing right when you play them, but when something is achieved they do some effect.

• Secrets from Hearthstone, or Traps from YuGiOh (but probably not hand traps) ( I would love to counterspell Harrowing :) )

• Conditional board clears, like Defile from Hearthstone.

• Units that cost unit mana and spell mana to play, or just straight up Overload type cards (which make it so next turn, you have X less mana)

• Old fashioned Mill decks (not like Maokai/The Watcher)

• Landmarks or Minions which you can click on to activate some effect for mana.

• Something like Weapons from Hearthstone.

• Cards that support Last Breath archetypes:

1. Like Hearthstone's card that lets you fill your board with 1/1 copies of minions in your deck
2. They also have stuff that like copies the last breath of a friendly unit

• Cards that deal damage to enemy units (or all units) as a last breath.

• A spell mechanic which lets you insert that spell anywhere on the stack, or rearrange them.

• Cards which benefit somehow from your nexus hp being low

• Spells which temporarily increase the cost of opponent spells or play minions the rest of this round and next round.

• Cards which let you shuffle some number of cards into your deck in order to draw that many (like Rummage but instead of discarding, just shuffling them back into your deck [I miss 1 mana rummage :( ])

That's all I can think of right now

(edit: sorry about the formatting)

Edit (just my brain spending too much time on this): Oooh yea, could you imagine being at 2 hp, new round starts and you go first, you spend like 6 mana or something to cast a slow speed "Your nexus hp cannot be reduced below 1 this round", and opponent responds with mystic shot to your nexus, to which you respond with a 2 mana burst speed "swap the order of two spells on the stack?" Then you full swing with your board for lethal <3 That would be fun lol