LoR: 5 Archetypes that Failed Miserably

When cards are released to Legends of Runeterra, they always have a goal, be it to support a certain archetype, or create an entirely new game style. Maybe even counter a specific meta deck. Many of these goals fail, and these cards end up forgotten forever in Runeterra's card collection.

In this article, we'll discuss not only these cards, but entire package of cards that were forgotten because they failed miserably at accomplishing their game goals. We'll discuss some archetypes that I bet you never knew existed.

Let's go!

We're talking about Master Yi followers. Did you know Wuju Masters are an equipment archetype in Ionia? We're talking about the following cards:

This archetype splashes in the Flow mechanic, and has synergy with equipment.

The first reason why this archetype failed miserably is that Master Yi has never been strong, nor popular, both at a competitive level and the ranked queue. Every time he saw play was with Akshan or Karma in very obscure lists.

Equipment cards aren't very interesting in Ionia because they are a mechanic that promotes a more sequenced and faster game style. This kind of goes along with Ionia's main goal at the start of 2023: to be a Midrange region.

As we've seen, Ionia has continued to be one of the great protagonists of slow control lists during this year. We're talking about Karma and Sett and all their versions. As a result, we've never had a reason to use equipment in our Ionian decks.

This archetype's most used card was Vastayan Disciple in Ahri lists, and Elusive Aggro lists with Piltover & Zaun. It was also played in Karma Sett lists.

Even though he is one of Runeterra's first champions, and also one of the most popular ones across all Riot Games, Yasuo has never been a strong champion. Throughout the years, we tried to make him work so badly, but it has never worked out. Even though Riot releases support cards for this champion all the time, and Stun mechanics for several different regions, it has never been enough.

These are most cards that make up Yasuo's original Stun archetype:

This package of cards is the most accepted package of cards that originally complemented Yasuo. Very few cards in the game actually reference him, in fact.

Obviously, any card that Stuns or Returns targets automatically complements this champion. This became a meme in the community, and any time a new card that is revealed brings one of these two things, we say: "Yasuo support, let's go."

It is already accepted that Yasuo's main issue is the big contradiction that is his effect with the Stun mechanic itself. This champion deals damage to units that are Stunned or Returned, and this means it deals damage to units that already being controlled on the board, which is quite redundant in most matches. Additional damage is always welcome, but the way Yasuo deals this damage is quite odd, and appears to be quite slow when compared to other decks. If you really want to deal 2 damage to a unit this badly, just use Mystic Shot or a High Note in your deck, instead of playing Yasuo on the board, and spending mana Stunning that unit.

This champion has never played at a competitive level, but his support cards surely have. Particularly Will of Ionia, in Runeterra's early days, and Concussive Palm, which is used to this day.

This is, certainly, the saddest archetype in all of Runeterra. Units with Attach were a colossal failure. Nowadays, Yuumi might even be one of the best champions in the game, but it took a while for this to happen. In any way, her support cards, overall, have failed miserably. We're talking about these cards:

Papercraft Dragon has seen come competitive play in Akshan Combo lists in a somewhat distant past, and, as incredible as it sounds, Sharesies saw a lot of competitive play in Jax Ornn lists. Besides these cards, and Yuumi, all other cards have never been meta, or were popular.

The Papertree is, without a question, one of the worst cards in the game, and might even be the worst card in the game. I talk so much about this card in every piece of content I create that I'm starting to think it is stalking me.

Unfortunately, for a unit with Attach to be strong, it needs an excellent effect as well because investing so many resources on a single unit is always a bit risky in Runeterra. Yuumi basically is only strong because Fizz is quite strong too, and he nearly literally carries her into the competitive meta.

This champion is also seeing some play in Poros lists nowadays.

Maybe the saddest card out of all of these is Quick Quill, which grants a unit +1|+1 and Quick Attack, which is simply the most common keyword in the entire game.

Even though Vayne is the most played Demacian champion of all time, and even though she is one of the best options for any list that brings this region, her support cards have rarely seen play. Vayne's package of cards contains the following cards:

Even though Ranger-Knight Defector has the same name as Vayne followers (Ranger Knight), and also plays in her decks, this card is part of Kayn's archetype, and the Cultist archetype. In this card's artwork, we see the Defector battle Jun, the Prodigy, which will later be assimilated into Xolaani. We'll give this card half a point still because it is very iconic.

The only card in this package that has seen some play was Steadfast Elkin, and that's it. The rest has never even seen the color of a cardback in their life. Maybe, if you were really adventurous in your card game journey, you've played Bloodcursed Harpy in a rogue list in some ranked meta. But I doubt you've even either touched any other Vayne card.

It is weird to state that Vayne's archetype failed, considering this champion was clearly a great success, but, unfortunately, that is the reality. The issue is that these cards that have synergy with equipment were swapped for Kayn's Cultist followers, which also work with equipment, and for Petricite Broadwing, the best follower in the entire game at the time Vayne lists were popular.

A solution to this issue would be to separate these two archetypes (Vayne's and Kayn's) with the yearly rotation because then we'd be forced to play these cards, considering they'd be the only thing we'd have left. Maybe, in a nearby future, this could happen.

My hot take about Malphite is that Riot missed the opportunity to create a landmark champion, which they then missed again when Galio was released. Malphite, like the other archetypes in this list, has never seen any play in Runeterra.

You may be asking yourself, "wait, but didn't Malphite play with Taliyah in a relatively popular deck, even though it was a bit weak, some time ago?", and the answer is yes, but Malphite's original support cards weren't included in this list. Malphite's original package of cards is:

These cards were revealed with this champion in his original kit. Currently, the only card that really plays in this archetype that belongs to this champion's support cards is Seismic Shard.

If you stop to analyze it thoroughly, Seismic Shard, actually, isn't even a support card for Malphite, even though it represents his "Q" ability in League, because this card has nothing to do with landmarks.

In any way, this champion's landmarks are very forgotten cards, and have never seen any play in Runeterra. Chip is the only one who has, but that was a bad Malphite Taliyah deck from years ago that was not very optimized, as we've said before.

We can say Malphite is one of the most forgotten champions in the entire game. Tryndamere almost takes this title, but at least he was used throughout the years in ramp lists. Malphite, on the other hand, has never truly been meta, and has never been strong competitively either.

If you read this far, you really enjoy reading about LoR's competitive history. I hope you enjoyed this content.

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