Monte & Leer’s Meta Voyage

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Evelynn Kai'Sa

Evelynn Kai'Sa is one of the expansion's most popular archetypes, thanks to two new champions and a MajiinBae’s video.

Kai'Sa's and Evelynn's are highly synergistic in their design thanks to the Husks. The archetype wants to summon Husks with random keywords, to level up the two champions at the same time. 

Kai'Sa Evelynn heavily relies on its champions to make the Husks worthwhile, which means that we run Rite of Calling to consistently find them. Our champion dependency also means that we need to protect them at all costs, even if they have fairly high health to begin with. As it turns out, Shurima has the perfect cards to do so in Quicksand, Rite of Negation, and even Ancient Hourglass!

Finally, thanks to our continuous creation of various keywords, Void Abomination is a natural fit if our champs struggle to get the job done or have died.

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Leer’s Experience

I don't think this is a good deck. If I wanted to be more expressive, I would call this one an Abomination straight out of the Void. =)

The concept of Evelynn Kai'Sa is intuitive and fun to play but unfortunately lacks power. Creating random keywords through Husks is entertaining and varied, but unfortunately, cards like Evelynn and Domination lack the power level to be worth building your deck around.

I went around 50/50 in the 15+ games I’ve tried it on day one, which was likely only thanks to weak decks running around, like a Kalista one that tried to shuffle Pesky Specter into our deck and make us draw them, and discard anything else with Aloof Travelers. 

I especially struggled when my opponent had a strong early game, or threats in the backline like Heimerdinger or Akshan. The deck lacks tools to interact with the opponent's board, and Evelynn doesn’t have a one-turn kill potential like Akshan Renekton or Fizz Riven that justifies such passivity.

On the other hand, Kai'Sa did feel good when she came down and survived. Especially Steem was a surprisingly strong unit in combination with her.

Void Blaster felt a little underwhelming though, as the card didn’t do enough to pull us ahead in the mid-game, where Kai'Sa Evelynn aims to shine.

Overall, I think the Evelynn package needs buffs, or a different region combination than Shurima, because this combo is not cutting it.

And since Kai'Sa felt like the most powerful card in the deck, I would tend to blame Evelynn’s weakness!

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Kai'Sa Sivir Demacia

The problem with Kai'Sa Evelynn is the lack of early game and interaction with the opponent's board, as well as the weak Evelynn shell. Hence, the perfect fit for Kai'Sa appears to be Sivir (or alternatively Akshan) and their usual Demacia package.

Cheap and strong units like Petricite Broadwing heavily increases Kai'Sa’s chance of seeing our Nexus above five health when she hits the board and gets to do her thing. Which is nice, because her thing is actually quite powerful and involves hailing a bullet rain on our opponents board and Nexus! =)

Add to that Challenger units like Screeching Dragon and Genevieve Elmheart to pressure the enemy backline, and you have an A-Tier deck which packs an above-56% WR on ladder.

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Leer’s Experience

In the beginning, I absolutely hated Voidling. It seemed like a one-mana 1|1 unit that does nothing to me. In my inexperienced opinion, the keyword wasn’t worth its horrible stats.

And that was because I played Evelyn Kai'Sa. 

In Kaisa Sivir, on the other hand, it can evolve consistently in rounds four to five, for example if we play:

Voidling -> Petricite Broadwing -> Merciless Hunter -> Sivir.

This means that we can either trade Voidling early into a 2|1 like Lunari Duskbringer or Boom Baboon, or have a one-mana 3|3 on board (and in either way, we help to level Kai'Sa)!

Since I was a fan of Pantheon, I felt compelled to love Kai'Sa as well. Her level two form needs a little getting used to, but after a couple of games, you will feel how strong she is overall.

Let me share some tricks and strengths/weaknesses I found with this deck:

Sharpsight and Barrier effects count towards the Evolve level-up. The same goes for Formidable from Petricite Broadwing. It can be awkward to copy Formidable with Second Skin, but sometimes it’s worth it for the Challenger keyword we get alongside it.

If you plan on playing Supercharge, play it on an ally that you plan to use Second Skin on. This way, both units will get Overwhelm and Spellshield! Additionally, even if your Kai'Sa dies, Second Skin can still be played and will buff the other Kai’Sas in your hand and deck!

Kai'Sa Sivir does well against a lot opponents, besides the wide board of Elise Gwen (Spider Gwen). Matchups like Yasuo Katarina or Annie Twisted Fate (Twisted Annie) might seem disadvantageous, but if you time your champions right and play patiently (e.g. waiting till they play Yasuo before slamming Merciless Hunter), these matchups become favored for us.

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Sneezy Lulu

Sneezy Lulu bears its name thanks to the new Sneezy Biggledust!. The card effect implies that we want to go wide on board to buff as many units as possible – similar to Aphelios’ The Winding Light package – as well as create a multitude of followers.

What makes this deck so powerful is the addition of Lulu and Flame Chompers!, which create unbeatable early tempo plays. Adding a burst-speed Yordles in Arms means we are able to lethal the opponent at round five to six, before they can get their engines like Kai'Sa online, and results in a 55% WR deck on the ladder!

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Leer’s Experience

I really enjoy playing this deck. I was a huge fan of Fizz Lulu and Ahri Lulu, so I naturally like Sneezy Lulu as well. With Sneezy Biggledust!, the archetype has become even more aggressive!

Since we don’t play Yordles in Arms anymore, there is no need to include Fizz for his region. Instead, we run more Discard fodder in Jury-Rig and Discard in Yordle Portal and Scrapheap.

I like to heavily mulligan for Lulu, though I also keep Zaunite Urchin and Boom Baboon most of the time. Yordle Captain can be a game-changer against control decks like Twisted Annie.

One thing that becomes a little trickier with this Sneezy Biggledust! version is that we run easier out of value. Yordles in Arms allowed us to force value trades after which most of our board survived. With Biggledust, a lot of our non-elusive units only get a +1|+1 buff. 

This means that we have to be more careful when going all-in with an open attack, and plan out our burn damage. This is something I myself still struggle with and have to gain more experience in!

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Monte’s Experience

YiA has been reincarnated with the introduction of Sneezy Biggledust and I’m here for it. Ptash built the list I used on patch day, which he used to climb to masters himself. 

There honestly isn’t any difference from this to the old Yordles In Arms decks. We don’t have to play bad multi-region units now so we can play more of the Discard package like Scrapheap for value and Jury-Rig for fodder, so we can play FAST if we want to. 

One tip I have is to understand whether you’re in a value matchup or a SMOrc (beat them down) matchup. This might not always be clear, like in the case of Annie TF – you’ll never beat them down fast enough so you’ll have to play for value and beat them up on turns they’ve spent the majority of their mana on card draw. 

The one thing I did find is that my wins often came from exploiting a weakness in my opponent’s play. I’m not sure this deck will stick around in the upcoming weeks, if it will be refined further, or if it will fall in favor of a different PnZ pile. I remember the hype around Heimer Ezreal BC, and that deck disappeared rather quickly. 

Nonetheless this is a fun deck that you should definitely take for a spin now while the meta is perfect for it.

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Azirelia

Azir Irelia has been around since the dawn of Shurima. Like the champion the deck derives its name from, the deck fell dormant for a time, believed dead…

… but with the latest expansion the deck got a new card, giving it a solid power boost.

Domination turns all your Blades into genuine threats that are much harder to block. The meta is also in a prime spot for the deck right now and it’s boasting a 56% win-rate on the ladder.

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Monte’s Experience

Wow did this deck get a power boost! Domination acts as a mini Azir 2 without any requirements, and it gives your other units a Husk to reap? I’m amazed this made it through play-testing.

The deck does of course still have its bad matchups, but they’re not really existent on the ladder at the moment. You can just run away with games, and killing people on round 5 is not uncommon these days. 

Make high-tempo plays to stay on top of the board so that your Blade Dance units can get through and your full swings are more devastating. Remember that this deck prefers to trade on offense and that you may want to take some damage if it means a better attacking turn. 

In the mulligan you need to be looking primarily for Azir and/or Dais. This depends on what turn you have the attack token as well, if you want tips you should @Darkodius on twitter.

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Zilean Ekko

There’s a reason I labeled this “Zilean Ekko”: Rite of Passage unlocks Zilean’s full potential, and we’re putting it to great use in this new version of a classic deck. 

Evil Imperfectionist and Khahiri the Returned step up into the spotlight, carrying you out of unlikely spots. Access to tools like Quicksand and Rite of Negation let you deal with the Kai'Sa players running around. Fallen Feline and Time Bomb turn Yasuo players into chump food. This deck is purr-fect for anyone who’s ever wanted to play Zilean control.

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Monte’s Experience

This is the deck I’ve played the most this season and it’s a bit different from the Ekko Zilean lists you might be used to. Garretz gave me the initial list which I then tweaked slightly to what you see above. 

This deck plays a LOT more for Zilean and Fallen Feline.

You’ll still want to be playing quite similarly to traditional Ekko Zilean, predicting while setting up a board on rounds 1-4, but you’ll then need to decide what you want to shuffle into your deck with Evil Imperfectionist. Sometimes the Hexite Crystal will be correct, others Chronobreak. Occasionally, even Khahiri the Returned can be quite good – it’s hard to lose to Thralls when you can play four-mana 15/15s. 

This is yet another deck where you’ll need to be able to identify your wincon in the mulligan. With Zilean Ekko, you’re also rewarded for being able to adapt your gameplan on the fly. Be cautious with your Predicts though, and value the skip option.

This deck isn’t fully refined, and there’s a good chance it doesn’t stick around in this form and rather moves back towards Voice of the Risen, but it is a LOT of fun right now.

Zilean level two gives incredible amounts of value and locking out games with Hexite Crystals gives an amazing dopamine rush.

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In Closing

We hope you've enjoyed our first trip into these turbulent early days of the Forces of Beyond Meta – it is wild out there, with Worldwalker powerhouses ducking it out with the new arrivals, and there's no lack of new decks to try!

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