Hey guys, Yangzera here to talk about the Explorer cards! It’s good to see the League of Explorers finally have some more depth added to it. I have lots of positive thoughts for them, so let’s talk about it.
The Explorer Spells
I really love that these tokens are being added to the game. Giving all regions access to these tech cards in the form of understated units that generate these effects in hand is great in my opinion and will help fix scenarios where a region would suffer from not having access to one of these effects. These units aren’t the best thing in the world, but we have to remember that we’re going into a standard format. The power level of the game is much lower there then in eternal and some decks and regions need the punch.
For example, the Explorer's Excavation is a great tool to deal with Akshan
’s level 2 landmark, Back Alley Bar
, Vaults of Helia
or even the new Sunken Temple
. Explorer's Malfunction can destroy Swinging Glaive
or a pesky Darkin equipment too.
Explorer Spells Breaking Region Pie
I’ve seen this talk a lot recently and I think I’ll address it here. I don’t think this is a big issue. The only card that’s arguably ahead of its curve is the landmark destruction card, and all regions are supposed to have access to landmark destruction by default. You need to pay extra for an effect that wouldn’t normally be in your region like disabling keywords or healing the nexus, but you always have to do it in a proactive way, since they’re focus speed. This focus speed dynamic also gives the opponent room for counterplay, since you can’t respond to a spell or attack with it, and it’s why I think these effects are ok to have on every region. Sure, we’re giving some regions access to things they wouldn’t otherwise have, but they need to not only play it very proactively, but also have to play a mediocrely understatted unit for it.
Scholarly Pioneer
Demacia Freljord really likes the explorer card, because they don’t currently have efficient landmark removal. That on top of a very decent 2/3 challenger body can help the regions a ton. Any +1/+1 buff to him will be massive and worst case scenario, you can always pick Explorer's Refreshments and heal him after picking an opposing unit off, giving you the ability to get even more good trades with it. In my opinion this is by far the best explorer card, 5/5.
Spectral Surveyor
I really love this card. Shadow Isles really needs the landmark destruction more then anything and Targon will make great use of the equipment destruction. On top of all that, it’s a 2/2 lifesteal unit in regions that are notably slower in how they play most games. For Shadow Isles, Surveyor is a little less useless in current strategies like Nasus
or Heimerdinger
Jayce
, but in Targon the card fits the mana curve very well now that we lose Aphelios
and Mountain Scryer
in standard. It will be a great tool to set up early Cosmic Call
s when paired with Cosmic Youngling
. 4/5 card for me.
Octo Adventurer
A lot of people say this is one of the worst cards of the bunch, but I really like it. All of the cards are decent, but this one is a little above the others for me because it can be a synergy point, since it’s Elusive. For Seraphine
decks, you not only progress her but also get a unit that most likely blocks twice. For Nami
decks, you get an Elusive body with high health that can make a block and survive alongside a spell that can buff its attack for a swing back! I think the synergy points in its regions are what make Octo Adventurer pretty good. 3/5 card.
Armed Acquisitioner
The appeal this card has is that it’s a 2 drop in Noxus, which is a region that’s really been lacking on 2 drops – that aren’t named Samira
– lately. Both regions already have access to efficient cards with those effects, like Scorched Earth
and Quicksand
, but access to the rest of the pool is really good to have. On top of that, you get a card that can pressure or block very nicely going into a meta with way less pings then Eternal does. 3/5
Portal Pioneer
This is the worst card for me because the 1/1 statline really is sad to look at. I’d like this a lot more if it had an extra point of health though, and it would be just way too good if it was a 2/1. The good thing these regions have going for them is that you generally don’t combine them together, so any Ionia or Bandle city deck that wants to play explorer cards will have access to their secondary region’s unit. Not to say this will never see play, but I expected more from it. A Yordle tag, at least? … maybe?? It could just be that access to Bandle City Mayor
breaks this when turning it into a 1 cost unit, but so far I’d say it’s a 2/5.
Conclusion
Those were my thoughts on the new explorer units and their spells! Agree? Disagree? Want more insights from me? Definitely tag me in the Mastering Runeterra discord or on Twitter and I’ll be happy to talk about the new cards with you! As always thank you so much if you’ve made it this far and we’ll see eachother very, very soon.