Our Thoughts on Riot’s 2021 LoR Roadmap and Aphelios Reveal

Our Thoughts on the Riot 2021 LoR Roadmap and Aphelios Reveal

Hey all, Precipic here to talk about the newly revealed 2021 roadmap and the Aphelios champion reveal.

We got a lot of info about what is happening this year with a ton of new cards being released, a new expansion, and even some cool events.

This was part of a wider Riot presentation that included updates for the other games, you can see it here if you missed it.

First off, here is the roadmap from January to July.

Basically, to put a long story short, in five of the first seven months of this expansion, we are getting new cards, one of which will just be the Aphelios expansion, and the others which will all be Shurima expansions.

This is probably the best way to keep the user base consistently engaged in the game because these new cards are the best way to truly shake up the metagame.

Along with today’s announcement, they also revealed showed off Aphelios’s mechanics.

It’s not just a phase pic.twitter.com/YfTyIZ9uWk

— Legends of Runeterra (@PlayRuneterra) January 8, 2021

Stick around for more details on how he works and our thoughts on his overall mechanics.

Aphelios Reveal

• Aphelios Level 1
  • 3 mana 3|3 Champion Level 1
  • Text: Nightfall: Pick a Moon Weapon to create in hand. When you’ve played 2 other cards in a round, create the phased Moon Weapon in hand if you don’t already have one.
• Aphelios Level 2 
  • 3 mana 4|4 Champion Level 2
  • Text: Nightfall: pick a Moon Weapon to create in hand. Round Start and when you’ve played 2 other cards in a round, create the phased Moon Weapon in hand if you don’t already have one. Your Moon Weapons cast 1 less

Aphelios appears to be a super sweet card in any aggressive or midrange Nightfall archetype. His ability to be a pretty high-value Nightfall trigger every single turn is really sweet.

The fact that he doesn’t need to stay alive for you to chain through all of your Moon Weapons is very important because that means if you Nightfall even once with him you will be able to get the full value from all his Moon Weapons.

Aphelios’s Moon Weapons: All of these cards are 2 cost Slow Spells.

Calibrum:

Calibrum deals 3 damage to a target Follower. Phase Severum or Gravitum.

This card seems very useful at helping you control the board, it not hitting champions is very notable and will be a big drawback to the card a lot of the time.

Severum

Severum gives an ally +1|+2 and Lifesteal this Round. Phase Gravitum or Infernum.

This seems like an absurd tool at helping you come back into games, especially if you put it on a unit that gets a ton of attack like Diana.

Gravitum

Gravitum Stuns an enemy. If it’s a follower, Stun it again at the next Round Start. Phase Infernum or Crescendum.

This seems like a pretty sweet tool to have to punish any sort of development into you. It seems incredibly good against a card like The Grand Plaza for example.

Infernum

Infernum gives an ally +2|+1 and Overwhelm this Round. Phase Crescendum or Calibrum.

The best of these for actually ending games, this card seems incredibly again on a high attack unit like Diana. This also has a bit of cute synergy with Lee Sin

Crescendum

Crescendum summons a 2 cost follower from your deck. If it has Nightfall, activate it. Phase Calibrum or Severum.

This card seems really good with Starlit Seer, Ballistic Bot, Lunari Shadestalker, Trifarian Glory Seeker, Mountain Goat, Sparklefly, and Eye of the Dragon

Overall, Apehelios Diana Nightfall would be the first shell I would look to work this card in.

It seems to give that deck a lot more of a long game which feels pretty valuable in a deck that already had a pretty great early game.

I would also look into a Starlit Seer Apeheleos deck since it finds you your Starlit Seer and gives them pretty important buffs.

Closing Thoughts

As far as the expansion announcements go, it is really great that we are getting new cards pretty consistently to help keep the game fresh.

I personally am very excited to play with Aphelios and eventually the new Shurima cards.

For more impressions on the 2021 roadmap and Aphelios, be sure to also check out Swim’s video analysis below!

To see the best decks of Cosmic Creation, head to our Tier List, Meta Stats, or Deck Library.