Howdy, Champs!
Legends of Runeterra's next expansion, Heart of the Huntress, is right around the corner – you can see all the cards revealed thus far in our New Cards Gallery, and Yangzera and Sorry have been busy rating the new mechanics, Champion and followers!
New Cards, Revealed and Reviewed
On Tuesday, Riot revealed one of Heart of the Huntress' new mechanics: Ambush!
The new Vocab has our Sorry quite excited – as he said while reviewing the first batch of Nidalee's support cards:
I'm thrilled about the new Ambush keyword as it introduces an element of surprise, forcing opponents to predict and adjust their plays accordingly. I'm excited about the upcoming patch and how the new cards will perform in the meta.
Riot unveiled Nidalee herself on Wednesday, along with the rest of her followers…
… but we have to say that our boy Yangzera isn't too hot on the Huntress and her pack, though:
At first glance, at level one she’s a worse Sivir – when she levels up she’s kind of alright, but then she transforms back to human form and then you have to level her up all over again, which can be very hard for Shuriman decks. Her premise is cool, but she lacks a bit of extra oomph for me to see her played as a win condition while also lacking the built-in tools to act as an enabling champion for other strategies. We’ll see how the meta pans out, but so far I don’t see her taking down one of Standard's Top Dogs.
But, well, at least Yang's very high on Avenging Vastayan!
On Thursday, we got a handful of Noxian and Demacian support cards which according to Sorry's review, may make quite a splash:
Some of the cards look extremely powerful, with a lot of potential behind them. I'm curious to see how strong Ravenborn Tome will end up being in the right archetype!
And on Friday we got… Spiders, Cats, and more Spiders!
Best LoR Decks for a Last-Push Climb
New cards and a new Ranked Season are all fine and dandy, but what if you still want to go for a last-push climb until Nidalee shows up?
Worry none – as every week, Herko's got you covered with a wide selection of the best LoR decks for Eternal and Standard. More than two dozen brews to find your weapon of choice!
On Other Runeterra News…
Region Pie, Chapter Two
Riot's Tyler Morgan, AKA Riot Durdle, published Part Two of the Region Pie series, this time tackling Noxus, Demacia, and Bilgewater – you can read Riot's article here: https://playruneterra.com/en-sg/news/dev/region-pie-ch-2-noxus-demacia-and-bilgewater/
Additional Details About the Ambush Vocab
Riot's Brian Kopleck took the time on Twitter to answer a lot of questions about the new Vocab, Ambush: https://twitter.com/bkopleck/status/1671221119624577024
Among many other details provided, Brian says:
When you play an Ambush ally, you can choose to play it hidden or not. If you play it hidden, said ally's burst Ambush spell is immediately created in hand and can be played at the usual burst speed. Playing the hidden unit will pass priority before you can play its Ambush, though.
Wrapping Up
Glory in Navori is drawing to a close, along with the focus on Eternal – Heart of the Huntress will, during July, switch the focus back to Standard, which will be the format for the next LoR Open.
Time to give Eternal a rest, and find out what new tricks the new Champs will bring to Runeterra!