Hey all, Shadawx here, today I’m going to go over the 5 most impactful Worldbreaker cards revealed thus far (It is the 20th as this is being typed out) and kinda give my expectations on where they belong or how much of an impact they’ll be.
This Worldbreaker set is going to be quite impactful as they are introducing a new type of Champion called ‘Runeterra Champions’ with a new keyword, Origin.
On the one hand, each Origin Champion counts as a region for deck-building purposes (and you could use Jhin and Bard, if you wanted to):
On the other hand, each Origin Champion comes with their own deck-building criteria.
For example, Jhin
lets you include in your deck any follower that has a Skill, no matter the region. So he would be one of your two allowed regions and you can pair that with something like Noxus, for example, and be able to build a deck consisting of ‘Any Noxus card + any followers that have a skill’.
Actually, why don’t I start with The Virtuoso himself?
Jhin
, Lotus Trap, Jhin's Dancing Grenade and Second Bounce
and Second Bounce
So there’s quite a bit to unpack here.
Jhin himself is a 4 mana 4/4 at both levels. Decent stat-wise, and his attack ability is a bit lacking without some support, but with the proper support it can be quite strong. Once Jhin level’s up his ability is not only limited to Stunned enemies, but he now also deals damage to the enemy Nexus!
The Virtuoso is Jhin’s Origin passive, which is applied if Jhin starts in your deck. The Virtuoso triggers while you Behold a Jhin, and on every three Fast spells, Slow spells, or Skills you play, you activate Lotus Trap
which deals 1 to the enemy Nexus and stuns the weakest enemy.
This ties in nicely with Jhin’s Attack skill, but requires some building around, which shouldn’t be much of a problem since Jhin allows you to play any followers with Skills.
His champ spell Dancing Grenade
might not seem like much at first, but the Second Bounce
it creates is where the beef of the damage comes from. On top of that, they’re both Slow spells which, help advance Jhin's The Virtuoso
to set up some stuns.
So with all this in mind, the most common deck that comes to mind is an Aggro/Burn style deck with Jhin.
A lot of the units with Skills are direct-damage cards like Doombeast
, Crackshot Corsair
, or Imperial Demolitionist
, so pairing Jhin with Noxus to give access to Decimate
or Noxian Fervor
seems like a nice route to go.
I think Jhin will be quite impactful if this turns out to be the way to go, being the new staple aggro deck in the meta. Especially with the Day One shenanigans going around, aggro/burn decks are generally the first decks to climb quickly.
Tellstones
I think that the Tellstones that have been released (one for each region, minus Freljord – they have Three Sisters
already) are great. The key component that makes these cards so good is their versatility.
Here is the whole list: Piltovan Tellstones
, Shadow Isles Tellstones
, Bilgewater Tellstones
, Bandle Tellstones
, Ionian Tellstones
, Demacian Tellstones
, Targonian Tellstones
, Noxian Tellstones
, Shuriman Tellstones
.
In some cases, the cards they can generate are usually really bad… but having the ability to include those cards in your deck without actually committing to them is what can make those bad cards shine.
Each of the Tellstones include three options, and in those options there is at least some form removal and unit protection. For example, I’ll use the Demacian Tellstones – if you are playing against an opponent and you know they have 2 copies of the Tellstones included in their deck, it’s sort of like they have Prismatic Barrier
, Detain
, and For Demacia!
in their deck, and it’s something you’ll have to take into consideration when trying to play around things. Do you let them build a board so they can slam a For Demacia! and put the pressure on you? Do you try to remove their big threat only to have it blocked by a Prismatic Barrier? Do you tap out on your big unit only to have it Detained and make you have to use removal on the unit that Captured it?
These are the sort of thinking that the Tellstones bring to the game just by being included in your deck. For the one playing the Tellstones, it’s not easy as well – knowing which moment is best for which option, and knowing if it’s the right time to commit it or not, is going to really take some learning to get used to.
As for the Tellstones that I think will be most impactful, I’m going to say that:
- The Demacian, Piltovan, Noxian, and Shuriman Tellstones will be the most played,
- The Shadow Isles, Bandle, and Bilgewater stones will be somewhat played, and
- The Targonian and Ionian the least played.
Like Three Sisters, it’s important to keep in mind that each option is essentially +1 to their mana cost because the Tellstones themselves cost 1 mana to cast.
Overall I think most of the Tellstones will be at least a one-of in most decks, and helps solve the issue that comes up for a lot of people “I have room for 1 more card… what should it be?”
Bard, The Wandering Caretaker, Chime and Bard's Traveler's Call
and Bard's Traveler's Call
Bard
is the other Runeterran Champion revealed, and I also think he will be quite impactful on the game.
Bard’s whole game plan is Chimes. They’re like reverse traps that go in your deck, and when drawn, they buff a random unit in hand +1/+1.
For each Bard that starts in your deck, Bard's Origin will plant a Chime on random cards in your deck every turn. When he attacks, he'll plant three more, and with 5 health, you should usually get at least one swing.
And when he levels-up, that attack plants six Chimes instead, and also when a Chime is activated, you grant +1/+1 to an ally in play as well.
So two things came to mind when I saw Bard: Elusives and Attach units.
I think many others also thought the same thing as I’ve seen lots of talk about it. With Elusives generally being annoying to deal with, and their low health being their main way of being dealt with, now if they get hit by a few Chimes, they can become much tougher to handle, while they hit hard at the same time.
On the other hand, Attach units work really well with this mechanic because if the Chimes end up hitting them, they can essentially pass those buffs to the unit they attach to. On top of that, when they get returned to hand, they keep those buffs to be given to another unit. With Afaelios being on top of the meta atm, I think we’ll see a lot of people experimenting with Attach Chimes of some sort.
The last big point about Bard I want to talk about is his Origin ability, The Wandering Caretaker
.
While the deck-building options for Bard are a bit limited, his passive really makes up for it. Every Round Start you plant a Chime in your deck for every Bard that started in your deck. Usually that would mean three Chimes every Round Start. Being able to passively start building Chimes and having the chance to hit them from the get-go is really strong. Even one early Chime hitting an early drop unit can make a big swing in the tempo of a game.
It will be interesting to see how many RNG Chime blowouts we’ll see thanks to this new mechanic. I think Bard and his Chimes will really be popular, especially given the popularity of Elusive/Attach decks already.
Harbinger of Thralls and Sands of Time
These two cards are exactly what Thralls needed.
Especially Harbinger of Thralls
: being a two-drop unit, it really helps fitting as a good round two play. If round one you didn’t have Frozen Thrall
, then on round two you play this and you get a Frozen Thrall plus a unit!
If you did have a round one Frozen Thrall, then you can Advance it by 1 while developing a unit! On top of all of this, it doesn't just advance one Frozen Thrall by 1, it advances ALL of them on board by 1. So if you draw Harbinger later and have multiple Thralls, or Taliyah’d one of them, you can advance them all with one unit.
As for Sands of Time
, while it’s not as crazy of a support card for Thralls, it’s still a pretty good one. It’s a burst spell that gives enemies -2/-0 this round, which can help stall out a key open attack an opponent might go for, and lets you soften the blow to set up your Avalanche
or Blighted Ravine
to wipe the board afterwards.
In addition to all this, it creates an Instant Century
in hand as well. Being able to countdown a landmark by four at focus speed is really valuable in Thralls – being able to summon an 8/8 Overwhelm unit at Focus speed to open-attack with is pretty neat!
Legion Deserter
Finally, we have Legion Deserter
, one of the first cards that was revealed.
A Noxian five-mana 5/4 with Overwhelm who gains all allied Everywhere buffs. This includes things like buffs from Legion Marauder
, Encroaching Mist
(Deserter gains +2/+2 in this case, since it buffs Mists AND Viego
), and Rumble
!
I think there’s definitely some sort of build out there that will utilize Rumble + Legion Deserter, or Encroaching Mists + Legion Deserter… or both!
Being able to get Rumble (level 2)
's Quick Attack + SpellShield is very strong: playing something like Rumble on four, then Legion Deserter on five sounds like quite the powerful play.
On top of all these buffs, Legion Deserter has Overwhelm themselves so if they become some giant statstick, they’ll be extremely threatening.
While Legion Marauders seems to be more in theme with Deserter, I don’t think they will be seen together too much. Marauders are already a bit slow to be played, and getting a good attack in is tough enough with them, but Deserter might be what the archetype needs to give it that extra push?
Perhaps Freljord Marauders or Demacia Marauders?
Only time will tell.
In closing
So overall I think these five reveals will be the ones that are going to impact the next meta the most. While I didn’t touch on Illaoi
and the Tentacle
cards, I have no doubt she’ll be seen a lot in the first while. Still, I’m just not too sure that she’ll be good enough to have a big impact on the meta. I’m looking forward to see the remaining champion to be revealed, as well as more cards that will support other archetypes.
Be sure to look for my next article on Wednesday, the day when the next Expansion drops, with Day One Decks to play!
Hope you enjoyed the read, happy reveal season!
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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