Howdy, Champs,
Legends of Runeterra's latest expansion, Heart of the Huntress, is finally here! You can check all the new cards in our Cards Gallery, and here are Riot's official patch 4.6.0 notes, detailing the new mechanics (Ambush and Disguise), additions to Path of Champions, and tweaks to the Vault's duplicate protection system.
Start of a New Competitive Season
A new expansion also marks the start of a new LoR competitive Season!
And there have been changes to the Masters ladder system. According to Riot:
We’ve been working behind the scenes to craft the fairest and most competitive ladder system we can. Rather than tweaking the old system again, we’ve created a brand new system that will be more understandable to all players. This new system will address two major issues with the old system: LP inflation and ease of ranking, and punishing certain players who have higher matchmaking rating, or MMR.
In this new system live in patch 4.6 LP gains and losses in Masters will be based solely on the differential between your LP and your opponents.
Speaking of points, one of LoR's real champs, Riot's RubinZoo, also shared a tabulation of current LoR Worlds standing.
And last but not least…
... TWO new series of Mastering Runeterra Opens!
TWO New Series of Mastering Runeterra Tournaments
Yes, you've heard that right.
First off, we're going to have weekly tournaments with a $20 prize pool…
… AND a shot at a money match against Jason Fleurant or Majiinbae for $100!
These will be for subscribers only – during this week, you can subscribe to our Premium service for ONLY ONE DOLLAR, as a nearly-free trial.
On top of all that, we're juicing up our next series of Mastering Runeterra Open Tournaments by raising the guaranteed prize pool to a minimum of $2000.00 USD.Â
You can register for the next MaRu Open, taking place on July 8, on its Matcherino page: https://matcherino.com/tournaments/97615
Best LoR Decks for an Early Climb
For those of you that like to climb fast and early, Sorry compiled 9 Early Master Standard Decks. Says Sorry:
The Heart of the Huntress expansion has introduced many new decks into the meta, and the current Master players have made their climb with a variety of different decks; we'll go through some of them today. Here are 9 different decks that have already made it to Master rank.
We're still in the early stages of the new meta, and things are changing up fast. Siren Song decks have gained substantial popularity, and calls for nerfs have already emerged from the player base. The meta is likely to adapt and introduce counters to the Siren Song decks, aiming to maintain a balanced environment.
- xGenarog's Jayce Sentinels
- Vendorty's Evelynn Kayle
- MFMM's Aatrox BW
- Maykas' Jinx Samira
- Bee's Teemo Ionia Elusives
- Kyzen's Annie Jhin
- GreenSlimey's Norra Teemo
- ValyrianBlade's Kai'Sa Garen J4
- Captain Mimi's Pyke Rek'Sai
And Herko dived into the first batch of fresh numbers, to find out the best LoR decks according to the latest data:
New expansion, new wildly popular Champs… but none of them too strong, by current trends: Neeko
has found a bit of a home in
Demacia, Nidalee
Evelynn and Siren Song, on the other hand…
has found a bit of a home in 
Demacia, Nidalee
has some modest success with Ekko, and The Poro King
looks like a fairly fluffy flop.- Targon Song: Evelynn Kayle
- Garen Jarvan Neeko
- Jinx Samira
- Garen Jarvan Kai'Sa
- Annie Jhin
- Lonesome Bilge Aatrox
- Illaoi Swain
- Ekko Nidalee
Mastering Runeterra Podcast #110 ft. ABG's TyGuy, Arax & Gibs: Patch, Pros 'n' Poros.
Jae and Bae sat down with three competitors from the Always Be Gaming team – including TyGuy, recent winner of the first Runeterra Eternal Open – for a chat about the new patch, Poros, the LoR competitive scene, the announcement of the $2000 Mastering Runeterra Open, and the Daily Road to the Runeterra Open Subscriber Tournaments starting Monday, July 3rd.
Heart of the Huntress: Nidalee Deep Dive
In a short YouTube vid, Riot's Creative Director Meaghan Bowe and Art Director Dani Kruse shared how the team updated Nidalee for Legends of Runeterra.
Meaghan followed it up with a Nidalee deep-dive article, tackling the journey of bringing Nidalee and Neeko to LoR.
When bringing a champion into LoR, we know focusing on unexplored parts of a well-loved character is risky. Even when we aim only to add and enhance, it can still feel like something you love is being taken away. (...) As players ourselves, every new detail is handled with the utmost care and love. We’ve done these sorts of explorations with other champions, too: we brought in Vayne as a fully-fledged Sentinel, and let Seraphine’s root show when she dropped the Piltover pop queen persona. So far, these additions have landed well with players, and we’re hoping for some of the same resonance and excitement with Nidalee, too.
Ever since Neeko was released, we’ve known that Neeko has had a big crush on Nidalee. (Honestly, who wouldn’t?) Being the only other champion that we know Nidalee has interacted with, we knew we had to tell a story about them and their dynamic. We thought a lot about Nid’s place in the world and her attitude towards others. Why would someone like Nidalee, who very rarely tolerates outsiders and has no known friends, ever come to trust another person as much as she trusts Neeko?
Wrapping Up
New cards, new champs, and a new competitive season in Legends of Runeterra.
Saddle up, Champs; Opens are coming!