Day One Decks: A Curious Journey Towards New Brews!

Hey everyone, Shadawx here. With A Curious Journey coming out alongside some balance changes, it’s time to work on some decks to make the ladder climb fresh and new.

With Ahri/Kennen nerfed with the hit to Kinkou Wayfinder and Ahri, and the small touch to Wounded Whiteflame might make Fated decks a tad weaker, new brews now have some discovery space.

Here are some decks with new cards that I think would be interesting to try out!

Tristana Poppy

With the Fae archetype getting a boon of new cards, especially a bunch of new Hungry Owlcat generators, Tristana has a bunch more dual-region units to swarm with.

And we can pair her with another Yordle who loves swarming decks: Poppy!

Regions

Demacia
10 cards

Bandlecity
30 cards

Rarities

29 100

6

3

22

9

eternal

Mana cost

0

0

5

1

12

2

17

3

3

4

3

5

0

6

0

7+

Champions

6

3

Tristana

3

4

Poppy

3

Followers

17

2

Bandle Commando

3

2

Grandfather Fae

3

3

Bandle City Mayor

3

3

Gleaming Lantern

3

3

Loping Telescope

3

3

Vanguard Sergeant

2

Spells

17

1

Fae Sprout

3

1

Ranger's Resolve

2

2

Pokey Stick

3

2

Sharpsight

3

3

Fae Aid

3

5

Golden Aegis

3

With the new Fae cards, especially Gleaming Lantern, you’ll be able to fill the board up with units very quickly. And once you’ve got that down, you’ll be able to bank up for a big For Demacia! swing or a big Golden Aegis rally!

Teemo Gnar Sejuani

This is a revamp of the ol Teemo/Sejuani deck that FloppyMudkip played a few months ago. With the hit to Lecturing Yordle, the deck lost a lot of power, but with Gnar and his followers joining the battle, we have a bit more of a consistent way to keep the Nexus damage coming.

Regions

Freljord
16 cards

Bandlecity
24 cards

Rarities

23 900

6

1

7

26

eternal

Mana cost

0

0

11

1

15

2

3

3

7

4

1

5

2

6

1

7+

Champions

6

1

Teemo

2

4

Gnar

2

6

Sejuani

2

Followers

19

1

Inventive Chemist

3

2

Conchologist

3

2

Stone Stackers

3

2

Tusk Speaker

3

4

Babbling Bjerg

2

4

Teenydactyl

3

5

Spotted Toad

1

7

Minitee

1

Spells

15

1

Poison Dart

3

1

Three Sisters

3

2

Pokey Stick

3

2

Troll Chant

3

3

Ice Shard

3

Cards like Teenydactyl and Tusk Speaker can damage the Nexus directly, while having a way themselves to get damage through blockers with their keywords.

And Spotted Toad and Minitee offer some other control options for clearing the board, or getting rid of a threat when Sejuani might not be able to.

Galio Udyr

Galio is just one beast of a card. With the new Formidable keyword working off of the health of the unit, cards that buff health like Troll Chant and Elixir of Iron become offensive combat tricks.

Regions

Demacia
30 cards

Freljord
10 cards

Rarities

26 700

6

3

10

21

eternal

Mana cost

0

0

4

1

14

2

8

3

2

4

6

5

2

6

4

7+

Champions

6

5

Udyr

3

7

Galio

3

Followers

18

1

Fleetfeather Tracker

2

2

Brightsteel Protector

2

2

Petricite Broadwing

3

3

Durand Architect

3

3

Laurent Protege

3

4

Petricite Stag

2

6

Hyara Allseer

2

9

Gorlith the Unscalable

1

Spells

16

1

Elixir of Iron

2

2

Sharpsight

3

2

Single Combat

3

2

Troll Chant

3

3

Shield of Durand

2

5

Concerted Strike

3

Udyr with his many stances can grant keywords like Overwhelm or Regeneration to your already big units. The deck is built with Challenger units as its core units to control the board, while you get hits in with Udyr to generate Stance Swap. 

I think this will be something worth toying around with in the future, depending on how the meta shapes up to be.

Yuumi Fiora

With the Attach keyword coming out, cards like Fiora have a chance to become viable again! 

Regions

Demacia
28 cards

Bandlecity
12 cards

Rarities

26 500

6

3

9

22

eternal

Mana cost

0

0

2

1

14

2

10

3

8

4

4

5

2

6

0

7+

Champions

6

3

Yuumi

3

4

Fiora

3

Followers

19

1

Fleetfeather Tracker

2

2

Brightsteel Protector

3

2

Petricite Broadwing

3

2

Quick Quill

3

3

Laurent Protege

3

4

Petricite Stag

3

5

Screeching Dragon

2

Spells

15

2

Sharpsight

3

2

Single Combat

2

3

Cataclysm

2

3

Stress Defense

2

4

Friendship!

2

5

Concerted Strike

2

6

Minimorph

2

The most exciting pairing there is having a Fiora with Quick Quill attached to make her a 4/3 Quick Attack, Challenger unit.

On top of that, your other Challengers can also benefit from that, or just from having Yuumi on them buffing them every turn.

You also have cards like Petricite Stag which is kinda like a pseudo-Shen to keep your challengers alive while pulling units to them. I think Demacia-Bandle is going to be a region pairing to keep an eye on.

Ziggs Gnar

Same as before, the Noxus Bandle aggro deck has a new champion to replace Poppy with.

Regions

Noxus
18 cards

Bandlecity
22 cards

Rarities

23 700

6

1

6

27

eternal

Mana cost

0

0

9

1

15

2

7

3

6

4

0

5

3

6

0

7+

Champions

6

3

Ziggs

3

4

Gnar

3

Followers

25

1

Inventive Chemist

3

1

Legion Rearguard

3

1

Legion Saboteur

3

2

Conchologist

3

2

House Spider

3

2

Imperial Demolitionist

3

2

Stone Stackers

3

3

Bandle City Mayor

1

4

Teenydactyl

3

Spells

9

2

Pokey Stick

3

3

Noxian Fervor

3

6

Decimate

3

Gnar is a new best friend. Being a Pokey Stick generator as well as an Overwhelm unit when leveled, Gnar just seems to fit the deck a lot better than Poppy did

On top of that, the only other real change was the addition of Teenydactyl to replace Lecturing Yordle. While I think Lecturing Yordle might still be a better fit, I think it’s a good starting place to try and revive the deck.

Gnar Swain

Another deck that Gnar seems to revitalize is Swain Bandle. 

Regions

Noxus
19 cards

Bandlecity
21 cards

Rarities

26 900

6

3

11

20

eternal

Mana cost

0

0

6

1

8

2

12

3

6

4

5

5

0

6

3

7+

Champions

6

4

Gnar

3

5

Swain

3

Followers

18

2

Conchologist

3

2

House Spider

2

3

Arachnoid Sentry

3

3

Loping Telescope

2

4

Teenydactyl

3

5

Spotted Toad

2

7

Minitee

1

7

The Leviathan

2

Spells

16

1

Poison Dart

3

1

Ravenous Flock

3

2

Pokey Stick

3

3

Culling Strike

1

3

Death's Hand

3

3

Scorched Earth

2

3

Wallop

1

With Teenydactyl damaging the Nexus every turn if it transforms and Spotted Toad being able to damage all enemies, Swain gets going towards his level-up condition.

Also, cards like Wallop can help activate Ravenous Flock and Scorched Earth, and provide a nice defensive trick. With decks like Pantheon still around in the meta and with the new Demacia cards, I think Swain has a nice spot if it does come to being a Demacia dominant meta.

Closing Words

That’s about it for now for decks that make use of the new stuff. A good mix of the old revamped decks and brand new decks. I look forward to seeing how the meta changes now, and if Demacia or Gnar decks will reign on top, or will something new come along? Feel free to share any interesting ideas you have as well! I’m sure that you can come up with even more cool combos and deck ideas. Thanks for reading and hope you get to try out some new fun stuff!

About the Author

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

If you’d ever like to chat, know more about the game, or would like some coaching sessions, feel free to hit me up on my socials!

Twitter: twitter.com/shadawx

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