Howdy, Champs!
Legends of Runeterra's Patch 4.5.0 has brought a lot to LoR – Riot's article is worth well a read, but for those short on time, here are the salient points.
I Am a Bird, Therefore I Ascend
On top of the new cards from this Variety Set, a slew of buffs, and a couple of nerfs, this patch introduced four new subtypes (Birds, Cats, Dogs, and Reptiles) to Runeterra, and the novelty of two-type units. Azir
is no longer just an Ascended: he's an Ascended Bird now!
Free Stuff!!
May not mean much to veterans with large collections, but sure is a nice gesture for newer players: this patch brought us seven decks that are up for grabs, totally free, no strings attached.
You'll find them in the Store, under "Featured" – bear in mind they'll be gone soon, so fetch them while you can!
The Eternal Race to the Top
As Riot said in their announcement:
"Welcome to the first month of Eternal ranked! For many of you it's been a few months since you put down your rotated cards. Now it's time for you to pull them out from their safe spots in your collection and put them back on the board."
Since this past Wednesday, Runeterra has not just one ranked queue, but two, which you can choose when you select a deck to play (with the obvious caveat that you need a Standard deck to play in the Standard queue – everything goes in Eternal, though!).
If you hurry up, you may be able to catch up to Jason up there!
Need Brews? We've Got Brews!
Not sure what to climb with?
Worry none:
- Jason compiled his Top Ten early choices for the LoR Eternal ladder,
- Herko's crunched the numbers to showcase the Best LoR Decks for both Standard and Eternal – you may want to check Garen Jarvan IV Kai'Sa if you want something novel in Standard (otherwise, whatever worked last week is working right now), or look into classic Annie Jhin, returned Draven Sion, or brand-new Sett Trundle if you want to take a walk on the Eternal side.
- Speaking of the King and the Boss, Yangzera has a detailed Sett Trundle Deck Guide warm out of the oven!
Of course, two distinctly different ladders deserve two distinctly different Tier Lists: to our well-known LoR Standard Meta Tier List, we've added a brand new LoR Eternal Meta Tier List.
Twice the data, twice the fun!
And speaking of fun multipliers…
Three Eternal Opens in June!
As Riot stated in their official article for this patch:
"This is the first Eternal ranked season! Due to some difficulties with the first Runeterra Open, we have a bonus Runeterra Open this month to bring to everybody! It’s two weekends back to back, so we hope you’re ready.
Make sure to prepare for June 10/11 and June 17/18. They’ll both be Eternal format and will provide the same cash prizes and RP as a normal Runeterra Open, as well as more invites to the Mystery Event."
And since at Mastering Runeterra we are quite fond of beating Riot to the punch, we'll as usual have our $1K MaRu Open during the previous weekend, so get those Eternal lineups ready and rolling: June may end up being this year's most competitive month outside of Worlds!
Several of the Gauntlets will also focus mostly on Eternal, as befits this very competitive month. In particular
- June 1～June 4: (Ruthless Rumble) Eternal (Bo3)
- June 4～June 10: (Daily Rumble) Eternal (Bo3)
- June 12～June 16: (Daily Rumble) Eternal (Bo3)
The Mastering Runeterra Podcast, Ep#104
Jae & Bae go over their World Qualifier Open Experience, what they hope for from the Eternal season, and thoughts on the Ladder & Daily Rumbles:
TimeStamp
0:00 Intro
0:43 Run Down
1:24 Worlds Qualifier Recap
2:40 Looking forward to Eternal Season - Fat Cat vs Big Cat
14:05 A look at Competitive
21:25 "The whole mmr thing"
28:10 A big change for helping the player experience in Rumbles
Wrapping Up
Two Ranked ladders.
Three Eternal Opens.
Saddle up, Champs – it's going to be one heck of a wild June!