The Road to Worlds
The first Worlds Qualifier Runeterra Open crowned Newmen, Anopheles and Drisoth as LoR's latest Open Champions, earning them a seat at LoR Worlds by the end of this year and showcasing what Riot and the Runeterra community can accomplish when working together.
As Jason wrote in his State of the Game earlier this week:
Between our casting, the efforts of the Runeterra Report on Twitter, and the contributions of many others, it really showcases what tenacious hard working members of the community can do to help elevate the game we all love so much.
The Eternal Road
With the Worlds Open wrapping up this patch cycle, it's time to look ahead at perhaps one the biggest changes in LoR's history: the next Variety Patch, expected for Wednesday next week, will bring a second Constructed ladder to Runeterra, the Eternal Ranked ladder.
Following suit, the two Riot Opens and our own MaRu Open in June will be played in the Eternal format.
As part of the warm-up for this brave new LoR, Jae and Bae shared their Eternal thoughts during the latest MaRu Podcast, also recapping the Worlds Qualifiers and the state of LoR Competitive going forward.
And the folks from The LoR Report queried a handful of top players, including reigning LoR World Champion Aragornn…
… and recent AM Open Champion Drisoth…
... about which LoR cards they would like to see buffed for the Eternal format.
For the record, we have no knowledge of what are the exact changes that the Variety Patch will bring, but the above are what some of Runeterra's best have their fingers crossed for.
What we do know, though, is that starting this patch, Mastering Runeterra will be one of the community websites approved by Riot to release the cards as soon as they are released. It will be a huge privilege for us to share the excitement of new patches and cards with our community!
Yangzera's Eternal Brews
Dust from the Worlds Open had not even settled and Yang was at it again brewing and theorycrafting some Eternal decks! He thinks this wide-open format will have something for everybody, so he prepared fifteen Eternal decks to hit the new ladder next week:
- Get Excited!
is back on the menu, and with it an Eternalized Ekko Jinx, the return of Discard Aggro, and three other aggro decks you may want to keep in mind if your foe's face is your kind of place, - If a Midrange soup is what warms your soul, then classics like Ziggs Taliyah and Akshan Sivir, along three other new midrange brews, may be down your alley,
- But if what's down the alley for you is Seraphine's Bar, then Bandle Bar, Feel the Rush, and three other Eternal Control decks may be what you want to look into next week.
is back on the menu, and with it an Eternalized Ekko Jinx, The Standard Road
It goes without saying that we won't disregard the Standard side of things, above all when the current Standard LoR meta is among the most diverse in recent months.
For those of you looking for the best that Standard has to offer, Herko dug the two dozen best LoR decks this week. Spoiler: he found Chime
s!
The Magic Road
Articles, podcasts and a banger Worlds coverage are not the only things we've been keeping ourselves busy with: We have expanded our brand into the grandnanny of card games, Magic: The Gathering, with our own website, MTGStorm.com!
We have premium content, deck guides, tier lists, data-crunching about drafting, and anything Magic players of all levels could need.
Don't know where to start?
Worry none! Herko's got you covered with with a step-by-step guide on how to get started on MTG Arena!
All Roads Lead to Pies
Riot Senior Game Designer Tyler Morgan, AKA Riot Durdle, published the first article of the new Region Pie series.
"In this article series," Tyler says, "we’ll dive deeper into each region and explain what pieces of the pie we want each region to occupy in the Standard format."
Chapter One of Runeterra's Region Pie is about Freljord and Shadow Isles.
Wrapping Up
Two patches ago, we had the biggest shake-up ever in the LoR meta, when around a third of the card pool became no longer Standard-playable.
Next week, we'll be part of Chapter Two of this story: the Eternal ladder will go live, and the foremost tournaments during June will also be played in the Eternal format.
Let's find out together where these roads lead to!