Zilean Xerath was a deck that became prominent in the “Beyond the Bandlewood” expansion, providing the landmark control archetype key tools from Bandle City needed to be viable in competitive play. Cards like Pokey Stick
and The Arsenal
provided a new value card and finisher that helped close out games.
With the “Forces from Beyond” expansion, Riot has introduced some new tools for this to mess around with. And hopefully make it shine once more.
7 cards
33 cards
26 800
Deck Breakdown
Zilean
is a card that is difficult to evaluate due to how matchup-dependent he can be in the role he plays. His Time Bomb
s drastically change the way the game is played, and his ability to predict is extremely powerful. Allow me to help you see into the future and discover the power of Time Bombs.
The Time Bombas
Zilean is the only card in the game that can shuffle Time Bombs, and for good reason. The two-mana landmark pings the entire enemy board and Nexus, while providing us a draw. We want to play Zilean as early as possible, ideally on round two so that we have Time Bombs shuffled in the deck and ready to go.
After that, we have multiple ways to play out our Zilean gameplan. If we have another Zilean in hand, we want to kill off our first in order to play the second and double the amount of time bombs in deck. However, if we are able to find two timebombs or a Rite of Passage, we want to threaten the Zilean levelup and begin generating infinite value.
Rite of Passage is the newest addition to the deck, allowing for some extremely potent plays. As soon as we are able to activate a single Time Bomb, Rite of Passage comes online and allows us to summon a Time Bomb at Focus speed, giving us the ability to gain access to Zilean (level 2)
very early in the game and potentially with spell mana. Rite of Passage also has the flexibility to summon any of our other destroyed landmarks, meaning that we can choose the most appropriate landmark for the situation we are in.
It is important to note, however, that once enough landmarks are destroyed, Time Bomb are no longer a guaranteed choice, which is something to keep in mind when choosing what round of the game to play this card. With Zilean and Rite of Passage, we are able to stall the game long enough to play for The Arsenal and Xerath
win conditions.
Still, you may be wondering how we are able to draw our Time Bomb so consistently.
Ancient Preparations is one of the best one-mana plays in the game, giving us the ability to choose our next draw and summoning a 2-2 blocker for defense. In this deck especially, it also has the added benefit of contributing to Xerath’s level-up and level 2 effect, alongside The Arsenal’s keywords.
Once we play Zilean, playing Ancient Preparations helps us look for Time Bombs. We can also use Ancient Preparations and a Time Bomb in hand to predict for another bomb and use the bomb in hand to tutor the second Time Bomb. Ancient Preparations also helps us look for our key pieces such as Xerath or for our defensive tools such as Rite of Negation
.
Preservarium fulfills a similar role, providing two draws for two mana, cycling our deck and contributing to our landmark win conditions. Pokey Stick also allows us to do this by cycling a card and helping us finish off a weakened unit on the opponent’s side. Unraveled Earth gives us another way to cycle our hand while making our opponent’s units vulnerable, giving us the flexibility of interaction and cycling in just one card.
To make sure that the opponent does not run us over before we execute our gameplan, we need to interact with the enemy board. With Zilean Xerath this is achieved once again with…
… wait for it…
… landmarks!
Rock Hopper is a power play for two mana, giving us a body that can block Fearsome units while summoning a Roiling Sands
that grants Vulnerable to the next enemy unit summoned. As a result, if we play Rock Hopper we are able to force the opponent to make awkward plays, or force them to play a key unit such as Irelia
on the next turn and make them removable through combat.
This also means that we can delay our Rock Hopper round to try and grant Vulnerable to a key midgame unit. For instance, playing Rock Hopper at the end of round four may allow us to grant Vulnerable to an enemy Kai'Sa
that an opponent desperately needed to play.
Our other Vulnerable-granting card is Unraveled Earth, summoning two Roiling Sands at Burst speed. Similar to Rock Hopper, we want to choose the appropriate time to play Unraveled Earth so that we can threaten key enemy units and attempt to speed-level Xerath, or give The Arsenal the extra keywords he needs to close out the game.
However, it is also important that we are able to interact with enemy units even when we do not have our landmarks. Let’s talk about some of the best interaction the Bandle City Shurima region combination offers.
I have mentioned Pokey Stick more than once already, but that only shows how flexible this card is, and how well it synergises with our gameplan. The ability to ping a unit allows us to kill any one-health unit in the game, including troublesome Husks, or Valor
from Blinding Assault
.
Drop the Bomb is the other new addition to our deck, dealing two damage and summoning a Scrappy Bomb
. Being able to deal two damage for two mana allows us to kill many enemy threats, including Twisted Fate
and Katarina
. Summoning a Scrappy Bomb contributes to our landmark synergies by being a destroyable landmark with the added benefit of pinging the enemy Nexus for one damage.
Quicksand is undoubtedly one of the best defensive tools that Shurima has to offer. This card is extremely potent against all the keyword-based decks running around, giving us the ability to completely deny Kai'Sa (level 2)
’s ability Icathian Rain
. It also helps us deal with Elusives or Overwhelms that would otherwise be game-ending. Quicksand can also help us potentially stall for one extra round so that we can get The Arsenal down and close out the game.
Rite of Negation and Ancient Hourglass are two of Shurima’s most inexpensive and powerful defensive tools, allowing us to stop our opponent’s interaction, often at a minimal cost. We can Rite of Negation opponent rallies or kill effects while keeping our board intact and our champions alive. We can also save one of our champions using the Ancient Hourglass spending less mana than our opponent, with the Stasis Statue
destroying itself at the start of the next round and adding on to our landmark and destruction payoff.
The One True Ascended (and Friends)
The payoff for all the landmarks we play and destroy is the One True Ascended-Xerath. When Xerath is Level 1, he simply pings the weakest enemy unit helping us weaken or take out early-game enemy units. Once Xerath (level 2)
levels up, he starts dealing three to the weakest unit for every landmark he sees destroyed. This level-up is very easy to achieve due to the high concentration of destroyable and countdown landmarks we play, meaning that Xerath is often leveled-up by round four or five. This allows us to control the enemy board by simply playing landmarks and letting Xerath do all the work.
If an opponent plays a must-answer threat, we can respond with Xerath’s best friend, Rite of the Arcane. We can blow up one of our landmarks by killing a weaker unit while pointing four damage at the unit we really want to kill. This card is very good even without a Xerath (level 2) on board, as we can still deal with key threats by blowing up a landmark, or sacrifice a mana gem if the opposing unit is life-threatening. However, I recommend that you generally do not do this, as putting yourself a mana gem behind in this fast-paced meta is generally game-losing.
If we are unable to achieve a complete board-lock, we can deploy The Arsenal and giggle maniacally as we present our cooler Void Abomination
with an absurd amount of keywords to close out the game. If our opponent is able to get through the Spellshield this bad boy likely has and threatens to kill him, we can simply use Ancient Hourglass to protect The Arsenal to double his keywords when he resummons and reapply Spellshield.
To be able to get The Arsenal pumped up, we need our mid-game units to help us out. We can use Desert Naturalist to destroy a Sarcophagus
from the Endless Devout’s Last Breath effect and summon a 5/3 Fearsome. We can also interact with our opponent’s landmarks such as Ravenbloom Conservatory
, which would otherwise give all the opponent’s cards a powerful boost.
We want to play out the Endless Devout as quickly as possible due to it being an efficiently-statted three-drop with a powerful Last Breath effect. We can destroy the summoned landmark early to reap its benefits immediately, or wait until we have a Xerath (level 2) on board to kill an enemy unit while summoning our own.
Tech Choices
Hexplosive Minefield is a card that has fallen out of favor for this archetype, as it no longer seems to do enough for one mana to deserve a main deck slot. However it is still considerable as a one-off to be able to stop single-unit threats like Kai'Sa or Illaoi
that are often the strongest on board.
Inventive Chemist is a one-drop unit, which this deck lacks as our only one-mana play is Ancient Preparations. We could add her to our deck if we need to be able to block on rounds one or two in more aggro-centric metas.
This is another one of Shurima’s powerful three-drops. We may wish to play this card if we need to target certain units such as Kai'Sa even more, or to grant Vulnerable to a unit such that the Endless Devout is able to trade cleanly and give us a Sarcophagus.
Mulligan
We want to keep Zilean in our starting hand as much as possible, due to how flexible he is in all matchups, and because we want to sacrifice him anyway in order to play a second Zilean unless he is very close to leveling up.
Ancient Preparations is another good keep as it allows us to use our mana on round one and choose a key card for our next draw, all while giving us board presence on round three. If we are unable to find our champions in our starting hand, or are looking for key defensive tools like Rite of Negation, we can use Preparations on round one to help us search for that card.
Xerath is also an important card to keep due to how pivotal he is to this deck. His ability to control the enemy board and force the opponent to make bad plays makes him invaluable and helps us accelerate our game plan that much faster.
Rite of the Arcane can be kept if we desperately need to deal with a unit, although Drop the Bomb can fulfil a similar role. Endless Devout can be another good keep as it synergises extremely well with our game plan by giving us up to two units and a landmark that we can choose to destroy.
Matchups
Kai'Sa archetypes – slightly unfavored
Mulligan: Rite of the Arcane Zilean Xerath Ancient Preparations
This matchup usually ends in two ways. We are either able to get a leveled Xerath on board to wipe out the enemy, or we are unable to establish board presence and have the removal to deal with enemy threats.
Removal like Rite of the Arcane is essential as it helps us deal with an unlevelled Kai'Sa immediately. Using Ancient Preparations to find Drop the Bomb or Pokey Stick can help us deal with Valor and remove Spellshields from Void Abominations so we can Quicksand them, or deal with them otherwise.
We want to try and limit the enemy board as much as possible with Xerath and our other removal as their game plan is very board-centric, and they are unable to interact with our units without having any units of their own. If we handle the enemy board, Xerath and our landmarks are able to deal with Void Abomination through Spellshield.
Azir Irelia – even
Mulligan: Zilean Rock Hopper Drop the Bomb Xerath
This matchup is fairly even
On the one hand, we have the tools to deal with the enemy champions and units. Drop the Bomb is able to kill Irelia cleanly and Time Bombs can deal with the myriad of one-health units at round start, including Domination, Greenglade Duo
and Sparring Student. We are also able to deal with blade dance attacks by using Rite of Passage to trigger a Time Bomb on board with another Time Bomb.
On the other hand, most of our units are low health and will succumb to the waves of free attacks Azir Irelia can represent. Azir has high health for his mana cost and is able to generate insane value for the opponent – he can make the game snowball very quickly in the opponent’s favor without the fear of Azir being removed. Irelia (level 2)
being able to swap with other units once leveled-up allows her to dodge Rite of the Arcanes, and move to safety when Quicksanded when she is blocked by a high-health unit.
If they attempt to bounce Xerath using Homecoming
or Defiant Dance
, we can use Rite of Negation to deny the recall and keep our champion on board, or use an Ancient Hourglass to keep our Xerath on board and kill an enemy unit on next round start.
Like with the Kai'Sa matchups, we want to ensure that the Azir Irelia deck does not snowball as it is very difficult for us to come back and win when the opponent has a lead.
Twisted Katarina – favored
Mulligan: Zilean Ancient Hourglass Endless Devout Drop the Bomb
This is a very favored matchup for our deck as we are able to deal with all of our opponent’s threats very efficiently. Both Twisted Fate and Katarina die to Drop the Bomb, and Time Bombs are generally able to clear most other units with the help of Xerath. And while their deck does feature a wealth of removal, a single Hourglass or Rite can mitigate their Disintegrate and ping combos. It is often better to Hourglass a champion as soon as the opponent tries to damage or disintegrate, simply because they will need to try to damage it or disintegrate it again to pull off their two-card combo.
We can deal with Ravenbloom Conservatory just by using Desert Naturalist, or allowing Xerath and Rite of the Arcane to erase Tybaulk
from existence. We should have no problem achieving a board-lock in this matchup and The Arsenal can push the final damage we need to win the game.
Illaoi Bard – unfavored
Mulligan: Endless Devout Xerath Quicksand Ancient Hourglass
This is one of the few matchups that is difficult for our deck to deal with. Illaoi Bard’s units tend to be bigger than we can deal with, allowing them to snowball and kill us using Overwhelm.
Having Endless Devout and Xerath in our opening hand allows us to establish board presence to block and deal with Tentacle
s, while Xerath can hopefully start weakening the enemy board. Endless Devout is also able to trade cleanly with The Sea's Voice making it an important keep. Quicksand can be useful to deal with large Elusives and Overwhelm on Tentacles or Illaoi.
Ancient Hourglass is pivotal in allowing our champions to bypass any Tentacle Smashs. In this matchup in particular, it is almost impossible to win without Xerath on board, as we rely on his ability to damage units in order to deal with enemy threats. We need to stall in this matchup for as long as possible, and use The Arsenal to close out the game as we cannot hope to achieve a board-lock – we can only slow our opponent down, especially since the number of Chime
s increases every turn.
Conclusion
Zilean Xerath is one of the few landmark-centric decks in the game, and a control deck at that. With the new cards printed and The Arsenal of removal (get it?) available, we are able to deal with most threats while executing our own gameplan.
It is a great deck for laddering due to its ability to play into almost any matchup and being able to utilize Shurima defensive tools to their full potential.
