Detailed Deck Guide: Kindred Sentinels

Hi there, Wamuu here. Today I’m bringing my guide on a deck that has jumped in popularity this past couple of weeks: Kindred Sentinels.

INTRODUCTION

This deck has risen in popularity over the past couple of weeks because of the number of aggro decks that were present on the ladder at the time. Decks like Spider Aggro, Pirate aggro, Draven Rumble were very popular and this deck is a hard counter to almost any aggro deck you can think of.

The buff to Kindred this last patch made it so she is now actually playable in a Sentinel deck because she is cheaper and fits the deck's curve better.

The basic idea of the deck is to beat up the opponent in the early game with Fearsome units like Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel and Elise while also removing their small units with cheap spells like Mystic Shot and Vile Feast.

The two Sentinel cards we run in this deck get a +2/+1 buff once they have seen a unit slain by one of your spells. This gives the deck a huge tempo swing in the early game because you remove blockers while also buffing your units. As they are both Fearsome, the opponent is going to have a hard time blocking in the early game.

This version differs from other versions who run Corina Veraza, Commander Ledros, and Atrocity as finishers. The reason why I chose this version over those is that these cards are way too slow in the current meta and they are often dead cards in hand. There are a lot of decks with Golden Aegis in the current meta and having any of these cards in hand in those matchups can be detrimental.

As finishers we have cards like Go Hard and Aftershock which we want to copy with either Station Archivist or Catalogue of Regrets. These may not seem like very strong finishers but you have to remember that this deck’s main objective is to control the board and run the opponent out of resources.

CARD CHOICES

3x Elise: She is a very good card that helps us in all sorts of matchups. She often attacks for free on turn two and generates a Spiderling that can help us stabilize in the early game. She is a support champion in this deck and we mainly use her as a turn two Fearsome unit.

3x Kindred: She is the main champion of this deck and she can be a real hassle for decks with limited removal to deal with. Once she hits the board, she will mark a unit and slay it at the end of your turn once you slay any other unit, including your own. You usually want to play her when your opponent is low on mana and you can slay a unit to get a free slay even if she gets removed later.

2x Catalogue of Regrets: Great value engine that can help us in longer games, it synergizes well with different cards depending on the matchup. You can get a copy of Go Hard in the next turn if you’re close to casting Pack Your Bags. Copying Time Trick can be very helpful when you are running low on cards and finally, Aftershock can be good to copy if you need burn damage to close out a game.

2x Burgeoning Sentinel: Great one drop for this deck as it gets a free attack on turn one and can also be good to play in turn two if you have Go Hard or Mystic Shot in hand and your opponent plays a one health unit. Her damage can stack up quickly over a couple of turns, especially against Bandle City decks that don’t have a lot of Fearsome blockers.

3x Buhru Sentinel: The bigger version of Burgeoning Sentinel and serves the same purpose, you usually want to pass on turn two to get two spell mana on turn three to then play him and slay a unit with either Mystic Shot or Vile Feast to get the maximum value of the card.

3x Station Archivist: Amazing card in this deck to dig for what you need. You usually want to play her when you have a card in mind you need to play and have open mana to do so. She has amazing synergy with Go Hard because you get an extra copy of it if you find it and you are guaranteed to draw it in your next couple of turns depending on the order it is shown. You draw the cards shown by Station Archivist from left to right as shown so you can more or less plan your next couple of turns. If you don’t like the cards you are going to draw, you can play Time Trick to shuffle your deck.

3x Aloof Travelers: Good four-drop that helps us cycle our deck and can discard the opponent’s big win condition as this deck does not deal too well with big threats.

3x Go Hard: One of the main cards of our deck. It is amazing against aggro as it usually slays a small unit for one mana and drains one health. It also serves as a finisher card once you can cast Pack Your Bags.

2x Glimpse Beyond: Good draw engine in this deck as it slays one of our units, triggering the Sentinels’ effects and also Kindred’s.

3x Mystic Shot: Staple removal card from PnZ. Helps us trigger Sentinels’ and Kindred’s effects.

3x Time Trick: Great card that helps us find the removal or card we need from our deck. It can also help us get card advantage once we are running out of steam in combination with cards like Station Archivist or Catalogue of Regrets.

3x Vile Feast: Staple Shadow Isles removal, drains one from a unit and summons a Spiderling which helps us chump block early game units.

1x Aftershock: Very flexible one-of card that can help us finish the game, remove an important unit or remove annoying landmarks like The Bandle Tree.

2x The Box: Good card in the current meta against cards like Kinkou Wayfinder or decks that summon a lot of units in one turn in general, like Iceborn Poros.

1x Withering Wail: Good one-of card that can help you clear the board or heal in matchups where the opponent summons a lot of one-health units.

3x Vengeance: Great removal that helps us kill big units, you usually want this card against Pantheon decks which buff a single big unit.

Note: This deck is EXTREMELY meta-dependent so you can play around with the removal cards depending on what you see on the ladder. For example: If you are seeing way too much aggro and Vengeance is becoming bricked in your hand you might want to cut a copy or two and play one more copy of Withering Wail.

MATCHUPS

Darkness (Unfavored):

Mulligan: Elise, Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel, Mystic Shot, Go Hard, Catalogue of Regrets

This is a very unfavored matchup because it is extremely hard to out control Darkness. Your best bet is to get as many Fearsome units as possible in the early game and trigger the Sentinels while removing their small units. You can also get a Catalogue of Regrets out when possible to start copying cards and hopefully outvalue the opponent. 

It is extremely important to keep Mystic Shot in your opening hand in case the opponent plays Twisted Catalyzer. If he gets one Darkness proc he can now remove Kindred, Elise and Buhru Sentinel with a single Darkness which can be problematic.

There is not a lot to be done in this matchup but if you want to improve your odds, you can tech in Commander Ledros and Atrocity instead of Catalogue of Regrets and other cards.

Kennen Ahri (Favored):

Mulligan: Elise, Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel, Mystic Shot, Go Hard, Vile Feast, The Box (if you have a good hand), Withering Wail (if you have a good hand]].

Kennen Ahri has a lot of one health units so our deck is naturally favored against it since almost all of their units have one health. Go Hard is the most important card in this matchup as it forces them to commit mana to save a unit only for one mana.

When deciding which target to remove, try to avoid removing Dancing Droplet as your opponent might be expecting you to do this and recall it, drawing a card for your opponent and getting card advantage over you. Instead, target other units like The Mourned or Kennen as it does not give them a card if they recall either of those. 

Kindred is an amazing card in this matchup because the opponent has no way of efficiently removing her. This means she can get out of control fairly quickly if you start slaying units. Making things extremely awkward for the opponent.

Usually, you want to have The Box on turn four to punish the opponent for playing Kinkou Wayfinder without mana up for Deny. This is a huge deal as your opponent will have limited mana and probably cannot save both the one drops that get summoned.

Withering Wail should be saved for when the opponent has no Deny mana to completely blow him out once he commits a wide attack with one-health Elusive units.

Iceborn Poros (Slightly Favored):

Mulligan: Elise, Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel, Mystic Shot, Go Hard, The Box, Vile Feast, Kindred.

This matchup is a bit tricky, you can get a lot of early damage in with your Fearsome units before they have mana to play a Daring Poro plus Iceborn Legacy and even then, if you have The Box you can bait out your opponent into playing multiple Poros before attacking to quickly wipe his board.

Go Hard is an extremely important card for when the game stalls out, as it can wipe boards of double Iceborn Legacy buffed poros. 

The Iceborn Poros deck runs extremely limited interaction, so if you drop Kindred on the board it is very unlikely your opponent will be able to remove them. Use this to your advantage and slay unbuffed units or your own to mark problematic Daring Poros.

Aloof Travelers can be a great card to play when you think your opponent has Iceborn Legacy in hand as it is the most expensive card in their deck and they can’t play it before it gets discarded.

Don’t be afraid to cast Vengeance on an Daring Poro if necessary as they have a limited number of Daring Poro they can produce so removing one even if it is not mana efficient can still win you the game.

Scouts (Slightly Favored):

Mulligan: Mulligan: Elise, Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel, Mystic Shot, Go Hard, Vile Feast, The Box (if you have a good hand).

This is a slightly favored matchup because it is sort of draw-dependent in a sense. You should be able to deal with all if not most of the enemy’s units and not allow them to swarm you with a bunch of small units. The problem is cards like Ranger's Resolve or Sharpsight that can save our opponent from removal spells.

A way to lock the opponent out of developing at times is to drop Kindred on turns where the opponent does not have the attack token. This allows you to threaten their units with Kindred’s ability and force the opponent to make awkward plays.

If you are debating between open attacking or not, as a general rule of thumb you want to open attack because the opponent might play barrier cards like Brightsteel Protector and Golden Aegis.

The Box is especially useful in his matchup because the opponent summons a lot of units in a single turn with cards like Island Navigator and Marai Warden. 

Go Hard is an amazing card in this matchup to bait out Ranger's Resolve early on to set up for other spells later on. Also, if you manage to get Pack Your Bags in this matchup the game is over.

When removing Miss Fortune just Vengeance her at the right time. The opponent has a lot of ways of saving her from direct damage so Vengeance is a pretty safe way to kill her if she’s nearing her level-up.

Lurk (Slightly Favored):

Mulligan: Elise, Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel, Mystic Shot, Go Hard, Vile Feast, Kindred (if you have a good hand), The Box (if you have a good hand).

The way you beat Lurk is by denying as many Lurk as possible, cards good at this are Go Hard and Mystic Shot on earlier turns. Outside of that, you have two key cards to counter both their champions if needed. One is The Box to kill Pyke once he gets summoned, and the other one is Vengeance if Rek'Sai is going to level the turn she is played. You can also play Vengeance on units like Xerxa'Reth, The Undertitan or Xer'sai Dunebreaker if needed, but you should be able to snipe those cards with Aloof Travelers.

Most lists don’t run any interaction so you can play Kindred and your only worry should be Death From Below. Kindred can shut down his deck if unanswered so try to play her when you have the mana for The Box in case your opponent kills her with Pyke.

Kindred Sentinels with Corina & Ledros (Slightly Unfavored):

Mulligan: Elise, Go Hard, Mystic Shot, Aftershock, Buhru Sentinel, Catalogue of Regrets, Aloof Travelers (if you have a good hand)

This is an extremely awkward matchup and very tough to play. You both want to remove the opponent’s unit but none of you want to play units to be removed. The problem is that normal Kindred Sentinels versions run Corina Veraza and Commander Ledros so their version can finish us off if they manage to get some of those on the board. The one way to counter this is to play Aloof Travelers in turns eight and nine to discard both their win-conditions. 

Another way to win the game is to get a Catalogue of Regrets on the board as this will help you outvalue your opponent. The opponent runs very limited units and they need to Atrocity a big one to win the game so if you use your Vengeance sparingly and make a couple of copies of them to remove their big units the turn they play it, you should be able to win.

As a general rule of thumb, don’t play units in this matchup and just remove theirs. Play Aloof Travelers if the time is right but outside of that, let your opponent develop first and remove their units, especially Kindred. 

Zilean Xerath (Unfavored):

Mulligan: Elise, Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel, Mystic Shot, Go Hard, Vile Feast.

Zilean Xerath is a great anti-control deck so it gives us a pretty hard time. The main reason is that there are not that many units to remove and most of the units in their deck have four health which is pretty hard to remove.

The two ways we can win the game is by casting Go Hard until we get a Pack Your Bags and cast it to remove their board but be careful since they run Rite of Negation. And the other way is by Fearsome damage in the early game with the Sentinel Cards. Zilean Xerath runs no healing so getting a good chunk of damage in the early game can help us finish the game later with burn.

Rite of the Arcane can remove our Kindred very efficiently so playing Kindred is not too good in this matchup.

Vengeance is a pretty bad card in this matchup because Zilean Xerath runs Ancient Hourglass which completely blows us out if they cast it on a Xerath when we try to remove him for example.

The Arsenal is extremely hard to deal with if he gets Spellshield so try to save Vile Feast or Go Hard plus Vengeance to try to remove him.

Tryndamere Trundle (Unfavored):

Mulligan: Elise, Go Hard, Burgeoning Sentinel, Mystic Shot, Buhru Sentinel, Catalogue of Regrets, Aloof Travelers, Vengeance (if you have a good hand).

This is sort of an unfavored matchup because you need to draw your top-end removal to win. Key cards in this matchup are Aloof Travelers as they can discard Feel The Rush before your opponent gets to play it. Vengeance because the opponent has a limited number of threats. They usually have three Trundle and three Tryndamere so if you manage to remove all six of them the game is over. 

Cards that help you get more Vengeance copies like Station Archivist, Time Trick and Catalogue of Regrets are also really good in this matchup.

If you manage to trigger Burgeoning Sentinel or Buhru Sentinel they become significantly harder for your opponent to remove. Tryndamere Trundle does not run a ton of Fearsome blockers so these cards can get a lot of early damage in.

Draven Rumble (Favored):

Mulligan: Elise, Kindred (if you have a good hand), Burgeoning Sentinel, Buhru Sentinel, Go Hard, Mystic Shot, Vile Feast, The Box (if you have a good hand), Withering Wail (if you have a good hand).

This should be a very easy matchup because Draven Rumble has a lot of low health units, they are very dependent on burn and we have a lot of drain spells and healing. Our game plan to win this matchup is to remove units until they run out of cards and eventually we will outvalue them. Drain cards like Go Hard and Vile Feast are extremely important to keep our health total high.

The biggest threat in this matchup is Rumble but cards like Go Hard and Vile Feast can help you remove his pesky Spellshield before removing him with another spell, like Vengeance. One thing to keep in mind though is that if Rumble levels up, his Spellshield will come back so if you think the opponent can level him before you can kill him, save your removal for later.

Mystic Shot is an amazing card in this matchup as it removes Risen Rider and Draven very efficiently and these are two of the most problematic cards in their deck.

When playing Aloof Travelers because most lists run one Lost Soul and you can help your opponent cycle if you are not careful enough.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Kindred Sentinels is an extremely meta-dependent deck. When the meta is right this deck is extremely good, but if the meta does not favor it, it can be extremely bad. To get the most out of this deck you need to make a meta assessment and ask yourself: Is there a lot of aggro or decks with small units on the ladder currently? If the answer is yes then you should play this deck, if the answer is no you should probably stay off of it as it can do more harm than good.

This deck also requires a lot of skill to pilot correctly as there is a lot of passing involved so I do not recommend this deck for newer players. 

As for tournaments, this deck can be extremely good in a Kennen Ahri target lineup or a lineup targeting triple aggro lineups although the aggro lineups are less popular than they were a couple of weeks ago.

Wamuu

Top 200 Master LoR player. I have a lot of passion for this game and love sharing my thoughts and game knowledge through deck guides and articles for competitive play. 

If you would like coaching from me you can dm me in Discord at: Wamuu#7531