5 Decks You Should Try After LoR’s Patch 3.6.0 Balance Changes

5 Decks You Should Try After LoR’s Patch 3.6.0 Balance Changes

The seasonals patch has arrived and it is an absolutely spicy one.

We’ve got buffs, nerfs, new cards, and even a gameplay change that is going to give a significant buff to quite a few champions.

Let’s look at some new brews and updates of old favorites to take into the new meta.

Head to our Deck Library to see other new decks being created by the community.

1. Scouts

Deck Code: CECAIAIAAYEQYHICAQAAEBYDAUAAUDAUAIBAMFR6AIBAEAAHBIAQGAAOAEAQCAAV

[See Scouts deck details]

Garen has been sitting on the sidelines for quite a while now, and he is ready to come out swinging in the company of Bilgewater’s own red-headed terror. Scouts were always kind of lacking a second champion. Quinn does her best but she just never really quite measured up.

With his newest buff meaning that he leads the charge into battle at the slightest provocation, Garen is your guy. Leveling a Miss Fortune was almost always enough to spell doom for our opponent, but now we’ve got another difficult-to-answer game-ending threat.

Quinn and Garen both level of off one set of attacks plus a rally, but the board-wide buff plus the regeneration I think will put Garen over the top. Quinn was often in danger of dying because of how many times she had to get in, despite having the same amount of total health, killing Mr. Justice will be much harder.

2. Frozen Reputation

Deck Code: CECAGAIBBMTDAAQBAMCB6AIDAEBACBADAQCACBABBIBAIAYCBABACAJJFIBACAZBGUAQEAIBAEPA

[See Frozen Reputation deck details]

You’ll notice three cards missing from this one. For Glory is a new addition this patch looks like an absolute powerhouse. It gives half of the Reputation Procs you’ll ever need all on its own and functions as two solid removal spells.

Then once you’ve already got the procs that you need it becomes an incredible tempo play. Let’s not stop there though, this deck got two more buffs that are going to make it incredibly frightening to play against. Ashe now level’s off of Troll Chant, and Leblanc produces her signature card on the flip.

Yeah, that’s right, those turns of multiplying Incisive Tactician are becoming more real than ever. This deck has power, interaction, and refill, three of the most important keys to a top-tier deck. It’s always lacked a touch of closing power, but the new buffs might just put it over the top.

It’s easy to underestimate this deck’s level of interaction. Don’t forget that any and all units you might have are vulnerable to being Culled or Reckoned once Frostbite effects start flying, and they have plenty to play around with.

3. Sion

Deck Code: CECAGAIEE4WTIAIEAQIAGBIDAEEQ2AIBAMKAKAIDAQJACAQDBEBQCAYLFYZQCAIEEYAQKCUYAEBACBIDAYAQGAYP

[See Sion deck details]

This one was already right on the edge of power, generally losing the nod to either Draven/Rumble or Tri-beam, but with the extra touch, and looking at a midrange metagame, Sion might be on the come up again.

The package might not be quite as unfair as in its hay day, but there’s still plenty of punch to be packed. The aggression can get turned on as early as turn one and simply does not stop. You also pack huge over the top with both Sion and Double Decimate Farron himself sitting at the top end.

The best part is you also get plenty of refill courtesy of your discard synergy units, so aggressive or not you’re unlikely to run dry. There’s also a small smattering of interaction with burn, Whirling Death, and Flock to keep your opponent’s game plans from going unhindered while you smash them.

Whenever people start trying to play fair the big red rage machine is always going to end up powering through. There definitely exist answers to Sion, but trying to kill him via traditional means will just get you smacked in the face. Midrange and traditional being synonyms, this seems like a good time for him to shine.

4. The Ram

Deck Code: CECACAIABEBACAZMG4BAKAAMCMAQIAAIA4AQEAYJAIBQABQOAIAQACY2AIAQGKROAECAAAQBAQBQEAICAAAQEAIFAAEQCAIDGM

[See The Ram deck details]

Alright, on one hand, we are definitely beginning to enter meme territory here, but on the other, this deck does some pretty unreasonable things. The new Katarina buff making her ping-free means it always gets to be played and achieve value. That makes me think Ravenous Flock decks.

This deck has always been missing just a touch of consistency in both its early and late gameplays and I think there is a chance the new Katarina provides that. If you need to stabilize an early board, then she can simply kill a small unit and block. No one says you have to attack and level her.

In the late game, she simply bounces up-down, and all around, Rallying as she goes and happily murdering all in her path. It’s not hard to find a way to win if you’ve got the attack token multiple times every turn. The rest of the deck is as it always was, board control challengers with silly ram combo at the top.

While it doesn’t come up all that often, I must admit there is a certain satisfaction in attacking for fourteen Overwhelm damage on turn six. Just a warm fuzzy feeling that stems from watching my opponent’s tiny helpless units crushed under the mighty treads of the Noxian ram.

5. Moon Beam

Deck Code: CEBQGAYJJFQNSAICAUAAYFABAEACUAYHAMEROIZTKRKVMXADAEAAMDY2AEBAAAIA

[See Moon Beam deck details]

So guess who has already been putting up some impressive numbers in tournaments and just got stealth-buffed? That’s right, this bad boy. The new rules change means that Lux is going to Level when you put her spells on the stack. No more removal spells denying lasers.

With two champions that take overboard states completely if not answered and some solid interaction, this may be one of the premier midrange decks coming up. The main struggle here though has always been in actually closing out games, and that hasn’t really changed much.

The main plan is either general tempo provided by many beams or some unreasonably large Starshaping-based threat. Vanguard Sergeant provides solid backup in a pinch, but we don’t reliably go wide enough for him to be our plan A. All reasonable plans, but nothing particularly unfair, which is a rough place to be.

All that said this is a good candidate for a “Bigger Demacia,” style archetype if we start to see little Demacia get out of hand. The traditional answer to when the Scouts kick down your door is to adopt their powers and do it slightly slower and more powerfully.

Conclusion

Obviously, I am just scratching the surface here and there are a plethora of new decks out there to try out. The entire meta has been thrown for a loop and I am all for it. Whenever disruption is the name of the game it generally means that the game is going to be good.

So go forth, brew, and prosper! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone out there on the ladder with all the cool new ideas that come about as part of this patch. And with only a few weeks left to go, seasonals are looking to be insanity itself.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (Tuesday-Thursday around 3PM PST and weekends for tournaments).

WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx Tuesday-Thursday