LoR Deck Guide: Pantheon Shyvana

How to Play Pantheon Shyvana

If you’re a fan of dragons and want an actual competitive meta deck, Pantheon Shyvana is exactly what you need.

We’re in a meta environment where Ahri Kennen is tier 0 in high ranks, so most decks that are seeing play right now are either trying to beat Ahri Kennen or beat its counters.

This forms the well-known rock paper scissors triangle in card games.

Ahri Kennen beats Pantheon Shyvana and Pantheon Shyvana beats Ahri’s counters.

Other ways to play this archetype include Pantheon Taric and Dragons.

Here’s a deck guide for Taric Pantheon written by the one and only Nicmakesplays.

Statistically speaking and in my opinion, Pantheon Shyvana is a straight upgrade to the classic Asol/Shyvana roleplaying dragons deck.

Currently, Pantheon Shyvana has a tier 1 win rate (55% WR) in Platinium and higher ranks while having an astronomical 57.1% WR in silver and higher.

A few weeks ago, this archetype’s counters were either in the form of Bandle City because of Minimorph or Noxus decks with heavy removal cards like Scorched Earth and Ravenous Flock.

Since both of these archetypes got nerfed In the last patch, Pantheon decks rose in popularity and win rate in the current meta.

Deck List

Deck Code:CECQCBAABYBQGCIDENOAGAYAAYFQ4AIBAANAEBIJAMDAIAQDBEZVKAIFBEFACBAAAIAQEAABAA

[See Pantheon Shyvana deck details]

Today we’re going to go over how to play this deck, its key cards, how to mulligan, and much more!

Gameplan and Key Cards

Pantheon Shyvana is the definition of midrange, a medium-paced deck that fights for the board and tries to play as mana efficient as possible each turn while focusing on raw value.

It uses Dragons as the main game plan combined with cheap Burst spells to dominate every combat trade and trigger fated for value and Pantheon’s level up.

Wounded Whiteflame

We need to talk about this card. A 3 mana 2|4 dragon with Fury AND Fated. In terms of raw power level, this card is stronger than most champions and is probably in the top 3 most unfair cards in the whole game at the moment.

Combined with the gem from Mountain Goat and all the cheap burst spells, this card grows extremely fast and can survive or even stop very aggressive attacks.

This card is so good that in some matchups like the mirror, spending mana on protecting Wounded Whiteflame is considered more important than playing or focusing on the champion Shyvana.

Shyvana

Shyvana is a very well-stated champion that is hard to kill when cards like Sharpsight and Pale Cascade are used to protect her. She can also level up extremely fast. her level up can happen on turn 4 if you’re attacking on evens, it goes something like this :

Striking dragon chow deals 3 damage and grants her +1|+1 thanks to the keyword fury.

On attack, the 4|5 Shyvana becomes a 5|6 and strikes for 5.

We’re now already at 8|12, 4 away from leveling her up.

Using single combat on Shyvana to strike one of the opponent’s units for 5 will level her up on turn 4.

Another common scenario is getting the missing 4 dragon damage for Shyvana’s level up thanks to Wounded Whiteflame on the board, with 2 spell mana banked and Dragon Chow. attacking with Wounded Whiteflame + Pale Cascade or Sharpsight making it a 4|6 or 5|7 is enough to level Shyvana.

When leveled, she starts gaining +2|+2 instead of +1|+1 and generates a Strafing Strike every time she attacks, which usually helps you take complete control over the board and win the game with value.

Dragon Chow

This 1 drop can be a great blocker against very aggressive decks and allows you to cycle through your deck while activating the fury of Shyvana, Wounded Whiteflame, or Screeching Dragon.

It commonly also allows you to draw 2 cards since Wounded Whiteflame has 2 attacks, it’ll strike it without killing it, and drawing you 1 card, the second dragon you play will allow you to draw the other 1. Which is an overall insane generated value.

Blinded Mystic

A new card from Pantheon’s followers. It’ll allow you to silence and deal with your opponent’s followers like Elusive or Overwhelm units.

It can help against very strong followers like Yordle Captain and the Arsenal. It’s also one of the most important cards in the Mirror since it deals with a buffed target like Wounded Whiteflame while advancing your Pantheon.

Pantheon

In this deck, Pantheon usually represents a side win con in case the dragon gameplan gets disrupted or slowed down. It’s a very strong finisher card that can also stop attacks thanks to the barrier keyword and getting Pantheon’s Shield Vault when double drawing him.

Leveling Pantheon is important but do NOT go out of your way to level him up especially if you don’t have him in your hand. Keeping tricks for trades is very important in this deck.

Spells

The main removal spells of this deck are Single Combat and Concerted Strike, they also trigger Fated which can be very useful with Wounded Whiteflame or Pantheon.

Dragon’s Clutch can be used to draw dragons but is also a great finisher when you already have a couple of attacking dragons on the board by granting them Overwhelm.

In addition to Golden Aegis, these two spells are very common ways to end the game or put huge amounts of pressure on the opponent.

A common mistake is trying to curve perfectly with this deck: Dragon Chow + Mountain Goat + Wounded Whiteflame + Shyvana + Screeching Dragon. Even though it looks good on paper, this deck relies a lot on its cheap combat tricks like Sharpsight and Pale Cascade.

THE MOST important thing when playing this deck is to always try to keep 2 mana open to use those spells or even bluffing when you don’t have them in hand.

Mulligan and Matchups

General mulligan

This deck’s mulligan can be quite tricky but here are some general tips:

• Always keep
  • Shyvana when attacking on evens.
  • Wounded Whiteflame.
  • Sharpsight or Pale Cascade when you have Wounded Whiteflame.
• Only keep Dragon Chow if you have Shyvana or Wounded Whiteflame.
• Only keep Pantheon in matchups where you need to stop their turn 4 attack like against Lurk.
• Keep Blinded Mystic in the mirror
• Keep screeching Dragon against decks with a backline unit that you need to deal with like Veigar but ONLY when attacking on odds.
• Only keep Mountain Goat when you have wounded Whiteflame and no Pale Cascade or Sharpsight or against aggressive decks as an early blocker.

Specific matchups mulligan and strategy

Vs Scouts (very good matchup)

• Aggressively look for wounded Whiteflame, Shyvana, or Screeching Dragon.
• Keep single combat if you have Shyvana or Wounded Whiteflame

This is the best matchup for Pantheon Shyvana. Scouts is a fast Demacia deck that historically loses to slower midrange decks. They need to attack multiple times and their units are always smaller than dragons.

Another crucial thing is that with cards like Single Combat, Concerted Strike, and Hush, their key card MF becomes very easy to remove.

Vs Darkness (good matchup)

• Always keep Mountain Goat to block their Twisted Catalyzer.
• Keep Screeching Dragon when attacking on odds.
• Keep single combat when you have Shyvana or Wounded Whiteflame.

Even though darkness is a deck that plays Minimorph (as a 2x), Pantheon Shyvana usually has more threats like Shyvana, Whiteflame, and Pantheon, so even if they successfully remove a buffed Shyvana, a leveled Pantheon or another buffed dragon is very hard for them to deal with.

Killing Twisted Catalyzer and Veigar as soon as possible are the most important ‘missions’ in this matchup. Senna can also be a threat but since she has to attack to trigger her effect, our dragons are usually bigger and can easily block her with Sharpsight/Pale Cascade/ Guiding Touch as backup cards for this trade.

Vs Ahri Kennen (very bad matchup)

• ALWAYS keep Sharpsight.
• Mulligan the rest for Shyvana and Wounded Whiteflame.

This is Pantheon Shyvana’s Worst matchup. The only way to have a shot at winning t is with a perfect hand like Wounded Whiteflame + Sharpsight + Dragon Chow + Shyvana.

Try to level up Shyvana as fast as possible while also focusing on Pantheon’s level up, playing a leveled Pantheon on turn 6 or 7 with keywords like Scout, Lifesteal, Spell Shield, and Elusive can be a great finisher.

Vs Elise Burn (bad matchup)

• Do not keep Guiding Touch even though it is technically healing for your nexus.
• Keep Mountain Goat, Wounded Whiteflame, Shyvana.
• Only keep Dragon Chow if you have Wounded Whiteflame or Shyvana.
• Keep single combat if you have a good hand e.g.: Mountain goat + Wounded Whiteflame + Dragon Chow + Single Combat.

This is probably the only matchup where you can’t afford to keep Sharpsight or Pale Cascade even when you have Wounded Whiteflame in hand.

Units are crucial in this matchup, try to block as much damage as possible early with Goat and Wounded Whiteflame and finish the game with a leveled Shyvana or a leveled Pantheon.

Keeping Single Combat for Noxian Fervor is crucial.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to DM me on Twitter if you have any questions about this article or just want to talk about LoR stuff!