Day 1 Eternal and Freebuild Decks + Patch Thoughts

Hello everyone, it’s your boy Yang here to talk about the patch notes! After sleeping on all the changes for pretty much a whole day and thinking about all of them I think I can come up with pretty level headed thoughts on most things and suggest a few decks to try out day one. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Eternal Meta Tier List

Mastering Runeterra now has a dedicated Eternal Meta Tier List where you can find all the latest and greatest Eternal decks being played on the Ladder or in Gauntlets! You can see it here Eternal Meta Tier List.

The Patch in Eternal

Most of my points today will be focusing primarily on Eternal, and when I do talk about standard, I’ll say it beforehand. I’ll try to talk about Free Build a little bit too because I’ve been waiting for the format for too long, and I’ll include some cooking for this week’s gauntlet in it.

Hitting Samira

I’ll bundle up the Samira changes into one section as they’re the most important for Standard. Initially I thought Samira Fizz didn’t really get hit because the Flair change only affects other Samira decks – you’re almost always pulling things with Samira in this deck because it’s the only unit with a combat keyword in Quick Attack, but the changes have a bit more nuance to them, mainly through the fact that when you cast your Powder Pandemonium, if your opponent has been doing their job and applying some amount of pressure on you, there is a change you can kill them on the back swing, because they can’t pull your units with the ephemeral monkeys anymore. That means they’d have to bemore careful about swinging with their non ephemeral units, which in turn could save you more then 1 or 2 health. This card is still better Decimate, but the deck definitely took somewhat of a hit. Sadly the change to Flair hits Pantheon versions a lot, maybe even to the point of unviability, and hits Jinx and Seraphine versions ever so slightly.

Overwhelm Mentioned

The Crimson Aristocrat change is far from making Vladimir viable or completely revamping the champion on eternal like the first rotation article mentioned, but it is now a general use decent Noxus card. Captive Yeti now fits the theme of Yeti decks and will make it into Lebonk builds(looking at you, RickoRex). I don’t think these cards will dominate the meta, but they will definitely be a consideration to slot into existing decks.

The Return of A King

It’s Draven time boys. He finally has his third point of health back, and that’s based! I predict he’s not great in Noxus control anymore, but he’s definitely bringing Sion and Jinx back in a big way. This was a very expected change and I’m happy to see it, so I’ll be sharing at least one Draven deck today.

Other Big Reverts

All of the reverts were amazing, although The Grand Plaza scares me a little bit. Let’s give a shoutout to Robomaster for making it into worlds since he gets to play 2 eternal opens with reverted Timelines too. Poppy Zed might make a comeback this season while the Twin Disciplines change, although good, won’t change much in my opinion. Maybe some aggressive Ionia decks spawn off of that but more reactive decks were already saving Twin to use for health, so that won’t change too much.

Interesting Buffs To Underused Cards

Losing Poro Cannon actually hurts Lulu decks a lot, and this Pix! buff could be a pretty nice new angle for her decks to tap into. With Pix! being a pretty good development both aggressively and defensively, her decks can both fend off aggression for an extra round before getting the damage done or get Pix to use its ability twice, and there is a chance old Ahri Lulu decks get to see play off of this and the Twin Disciplines change.

Loaded Dice becomes an interesting card, especially in a world where we get to play with Black Market Merchant and a plethora of pings in Flair, Stylish Shot and of course Warning Shot. The fact you’re not 4 mana down on the turn the effect is active is pretty big and could make the card start being used in Bilgewater Noxus decks.

Even though I think Captain Arrika will still not see play, this is a very welcomed change because you only use the card for the effect, and diminishing the mana cost for the effect is always nice. This is a good buff in the right direction and I’m all here for it.

Sanctum Conservator is now a playable card, as it will do something when its condition isn’t met. I think it could read “kill a unit” and be able to kill a champion, since you’re basicalyl paying 8 unit mana for the effect, but I understand the shuriman theme is dealing very well with followers.

Filler / Placebo Buffs

These changes, in my opinion, are much less meaningful then they look like. Some are reverts, some are straight up buffs, but I don’t think any of these cards can fair up in the Eternal meta. Iceborn Legacy’s change, although it may look huge, is just a mana point buff that got nerfed on the poros deck when Poro Cannon went to one mana. It can be good for spiders, but the focus speed part makes me skeptical about it, as we have a bunch of pings coming back to the game too. Withering Wail’s buff is very nice, but the game evolved in a way where there’s not that many 1 health things anymore. You’ll also be livingin a meta where The Grand Plaza and Ranger's Resolve are a thing, so it takes a bit of cope to believe in Wail for this eternal meta – at least in my opinion.

An Elegant Slight Buff to Standard Targon

These buffs are, in my opinion, mostly tailored to Standard as opposed to eternal. The Serpent got reverted, and eternal is where you have access to smallvoke cards, so beholding a celestial isn’t really hard there. It is pretty hard in standard, though, and you felt bad for running lone copies of Starshaping because most of the spell options would be unplayable by themselves. This made it so you had to run Celestial Trifecta in order to behold celestials for your big invokes and at that point it didn’t make sense to have SS anymore. This change alleviates the pressure and allows Targon decks to use only Starshaping as their invoke payoff and not feel terrible for doing it.

The Blessing of Targon change mainly helps the Targonian Tellstones out as it really felt like it was a 2-card tellstone (much like the Noxian is), and aims to try and give some flexibility for the use of the card. The big invoke spells buff is also an improvement to the gallstones, as a single cast of Behold the Infinite is enough to have them online.

Capping Tristana and Bandle Gunners

The level up quest nerf on Tristana will end up saving you 2 to 3 damage on the games where she levels up while already on the board, but the real change is the nerf to Bandle Gunners. Losing spellshield on the card makes it so Karma decks are a clear counter to Tristana strategies, since you don’t have to pop the spellshield anymore to deal with the card – be it stunning, recalling or just outright killing it.

Cool Eternal Decks to Try out

Here’s the fun part! I’ve cooked up a few brews to help you get a head start on the eternal meta! Keep in mind those are not refined lists and are subject to change (they might not even be good, depending on what decks the meta shapes itself around) but nonetheless are pretty nice places to start off, in my opinion.

Day One Free Builds That are Popping Off

These decks have been popping up on social media. I’ll try to edit the article and include a few other builds throughout the day.