Day One Decks – Five new decks to try out for Patch 3.4.0!

Hey all, Shadawx here with some decks to try out with Patch 3.4.0!

Not only did we get a balance patch with lots of changes – such as Aphelios' weapons going back to two mana, and Twin Disciplines and Sharpsight getting -1 attack –  we also got three new cards as the “Balance Experiment” that Riot was talking about.

Desert Duel, Celestial Wonder, and Rocket Barrage are three new cards for Shurima, Targon, and PnZ respectively, and their goal is to try patching these regions' shortcomings.

So with all these new things to play around with, here are five decks to try out and play on ladder!

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Targon’s Peak

I wanted to try out Targon's Peak again with the new She Who Wanders change, as well as Celestial Wonder being added.

This deck has always been pretty strong against control/slower paced decks that give you time to ramp up, or hit cards with Peak multiple times.

This list has lots of tools to stall the early game, for example:

• Avalanche and Blighted Ravine help deal with smaller swarm boards, and
• Celestial Wonder and Sunburst handle the bigger threats.

In the meantime, you can hopefully open up turns where you can ramp up with extra mana gems, or get a Targon's Peak down to play out your big cards.

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Mono Shurima

With the changes to Quicksand and Azir, as well as the addition of Desert Duel, I think Mono Shurima got some big buffs.

Interaction is one thing that Shurima lacks, and Desert Duel should fix that.

The new Quicksand also provides some help dealing with a wider board, or can still slow down a single unit.

And Azir is now way faster to level in Mono Shurima, since Landmarks count towards his level-up – up until now, Mono Shurima Azir decks didn't have a nice, quick way for Azir to level up.

I’ve settled on a 2/1/3 split on champions, since Azir doesn’t really do much alone, but levels pretty quickly here to trigger Buried Sun Disc. Renekton doesn’t level as fast, but does provide some good aggression, and I went with three copies of Xerath because of the control role he can provide with all the Landmarks in the deck.

Soothsayer, Quicksand, and Desert Duel I went with three copies mostly because I’m unsure what the meta may be like – depending on how things turn out, I you can tweak the number of copies, and/or you can add other tech cards of your choice.

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Yasuo/Leona

Okay, so while I don’t know how great this deck will be, I’m sure a lot of us were thinking about it when we saw Celestial Wonder. Yasuo has found a new friend in Targon, and hopefully this new card can help get him going.

Leona, who can provide more stuns and control with her Daybreak package, seems to be the best pairing for Yasuo. Malphite could be perhaps a consideration, but I haven't thought that one through yet.

Our goal is to stun the board and get good attacks in, or stun the board so Yasuo can pick off the enemy units. We run the standard Daybreak package to help level Leona, and in particular Solari Sunhawk is a great card that helps move things along by leveling Yasuo as well. 

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Viktor/Aphelios

Aphelios with two-mana Moon Weapons… good!

Viktor’s Hex Core Upgrade down to zero mana… okay.

Camphor, the Doubt getting +1/+1 and needing only four rounds of targeted allies instead of six or more… STONKS.

This deck is looking to make use of Aphelios and his weapons as a control tool, while having one of the following becoming your win condition:

• Camphor, the Doubt being super annoying with Overwhelm, Challenger, and Spellshield, 
• A giant Viktor with millions of keywords and huge attack,
• Manifest some big, badass Celestial like The Immortal Fire or The Great Beyond.

The rest of the cards are all supporting cast, helping us to trigger Aphelios for cheap, progress towards Viktor's level-up or activating Camphor, the Doubt, or just overall control or burn tools.

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Swain/Caitlyn

I think the Flashbomb Trap change – they now go into the top eight cards of our opponent’s deck, instead of top ten  – will really help out the PnZ & Noxus region combination.

Caitlyn Ezreal gained quite a bit of popularity last patch – while this is NOT Caitlyn with Ezreal, I think these changes will greatly help Swain, especially by leveling him up quicker.

And the new Rocket Barrage is another tool to power-level Swain when cast on a big board. Back when Swain was paired with Freljord, Avalanche instantly flipped Swain most of the time.

Rocket Barrage also helps by activating spells like Ravenous Flock, Noxian Guillotine, and Scorched Earth. And it softens up our foe's units so they get killed off by Flashbombs. I can see us going up to two Rocket Barrage if the meta shifts in that direction somehow, but I don’t really see that happening right away, so it’ll go with one copy for now.

The rest of the deck is packed with three-mana cards because of Tri-beam Improbulator. Getting a high-damage Tri-beam Improbulator and summoning a good unit off of it can really swing the game a lot of the time.

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In closing

So that’s it for some new decks to try out with the birth of Patch 3.4.0. I hope you enjoyed the lists and I look forward to seeing what all of you will end up trying out on Ladder!

We also have another big patch coming up in 28 days, which I’m sure will shake things up even more since that one is supposed to contain champion reworks.

Good luck, have fun, and enjoy the climb!

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About the Author

Playing LoR since beta, consistent masters player. LoR Dreamhack Champion and other high-level tournament win/top cuts. Crazy deck builder. I like garlic bread.

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