New Cards: 10 New Decks to play in Legends of Runeterra's Patch 4.2.0

Introduction

With new cards coming to Legends of Runeterra, the race is set for deckbuilders. Usually, those who build the best lists with the new cards that have just arrived tend to do better in the ranked ladder and tournaments.

For that reason, I decided to get 10 lists with the cards that came alongside Patch 4.2.0 for you to test, and have an idea of what's possible to do with them.

Formula Ryze

This list seemed to be on the radar for Nerfs, but it ended up being buffed and getting a great draw tool: Formula.

This card is seemingly very strong, but for this deck, it may have a bit too much card draw. The Ryze list suffers with full hands a bit too frequently, so for that reason, only two copies of Formula, for me, are enough.

I believe this card won't alter the win rate of the deck drastically, but definitely will bring a greater depth to the list eventually.

Formula Jayce

This might be the list that will take the most advantage out of Formula.

Heimerdinger and Jayce is already a very strong deck in the meta as it is a Midrange list that can be very strong controlling aggressive decks, and very aggressive against slow lists when it needs, which makes the deck, possibly, one of the best choices for you to play in tournaments, currently.

And with the addition of Formula, now you have the potential to have even more powerful and action-packed turns, even more so if one of the champions is on the board.

Norra Veigar + Sentry

The control archetype with portals benefits a lot from card draw and can struggle to have a natural board presence in the first few turns. There's always one blocker missing.

As a result, I believe the Norra Veigar list will be the one to take the most advantage out of Ceaseless Sentry. Now you don't need the Freljord region anymore to activate Avarosan Sentry's Last Breath effect.

Formula Badgerbear - Jayce Lux

This deck is beginning to have a spike in the meta, and it seems to be an alternative version of the before-mentioned Heimerdinger Jayce.

However, with the addition of Blocking Badgerbear, your turn 3s are completely won. This list already proposed to be a deck that plays units with quite powerful stats, for a very fair mana cost, as you will have spell mana enough to protect said units after they're summoned.

Now with a 3 mana 4/4 unit, you can activate this pressure by stats very early, something it was only possible before after you've played a 6+ mana spell.

Steem Scouts + Badgerbear

Another list that can come back is Scouts. This deck was a bit under the radar for players for a good while, but with the new changes and the arrival of possibly the best 3 mana card in the game to provide support to this archetype, Blocking Badgerbear, Scouts have a real shot at dominating the ranked ladder now.

Another addition to the list is the recently buffed Steem, which now promotes more interaction with the enemy board, something that fits really well with what Miss Fortune and Quinn's list wants in the matches. This deck I built, particularly, is a bit more focused on bringing 1 cost units to the board, so you can combo with Steem.

Feel The Rush Ramp + Winter's Touch

It was to be expected Winter's Touch ended up being used in the Feel The Rush list. Possibly, this might be the least surprising deck of this list, but even so, I wanted to give my opinion about this card in ramp lists.

I believe that if you're comfortable using Winter's Touch, you won't have problems at all with the card, but I think the already existing ramp cards deliver, in general, more valuable effects currently.

That is something I talk about in my full analysis of Patch 4.2.0. My recommendation is: test this list with and without Winter's Touch and make your own conclusions. Possibly, you'll realize your game style matches a deck with two copies, one, or even no copies of this card.

ATTENTION: these lists are my creations and possibly aren't optimized, but they are useful so you can have an idea of what's possible to build with the new cards and give you a notion for deckbuilding. These decks are NOT meta.

KegW Crazy Marai

I was inspired by old Gangplank Twisted Fate decks that focused on dealing damage to the enemy Nexus.

This list has a few low-cost spells, of burst speed, so you can combo with your Mischievous Marai. The idea is, on turn 6, in case your Marai is alive on the board, you start playing all the burst spells you've saved up in your hand, and finish the match with a Warning Shot.

In case it's not enough, you still have a Riptide Rex to help you finish matches, and Gangplank himself is a great finisher. Don't be scared: you also have your arsenal of healing tools that also deal damage to the Nexus, such as Unspeakable Horror and Doombeast, apart from cards that help you deal with the enemy board, such as Make It Rain, and Twisted Fate's red card.

Serene Formula

I still think Serene Sky-Singer is a card that is a bit weird to fit into play, but here goes my attempt at making it work. The idea for this deck is quite simple: this list is nothing more than the usual Seraphine Viktor list, but with the option of reducing even more the cost of spells.

If all goes well, it is possible to have a Sputtering Songspinner costing 3 mana in hand. That is, without mentioning that your Hexbliterator and Formula itself will also cost 3.

The greatest win condition for this list is Glorious Evolution, which can be played for 5 mana, and everyone knows that for 10 mana this card already allowed for crazy turns in the same turn it was played. Imagine that with half the total mana being available to be invested in other things.

I think there might be better uses for Serene Sky-Singer in the future, but for now, this was the only list I managed to think that could have any chance of victory, considering the meta decks.

Banana Blaster

This deck seems quite promising, and maybe what was missing for Kayle's hand buff archetype was Banana Blaster, a card that interacts with the enemy board.

It is still a bit hard to take 100% advantage of this new follower, even more so as this is a list built precisely for this card's synergies. But the archetype seems tough to deal with if you're not prepared for the stat snowball that this list manages to do, and its elusive units.

Banana Blaster serves as a complement to the deck, and it isn't its greatest win condition, just like Generous Gemcrafter also doesn't come into the deck as the greatest star in the list. But I believe both cards add a lot of resources for this deck and can perform well together. Only time will truly tell if this combo will pay itself and become something relevant to the meta.

Casino Aurelion Sol - Priestess of Desert Light

Let's finish it up with the best of all! This was the deck that everyone wanted to know if it would work, because Priestess of Desert Light is maybe the most hyped up card in the new set.

I believe the best use of this card is with the Targon region, because you can bring into the table an Aurelion Sol for free. Finding out if you can bring an Aurelion Sol for free with the new card was the easy part of this list's creation, what was hard was finding out how the rest of the deck makes sense from that, and, also, which other champions to use. At the end, I thought of a list that has the following 6 champions: Sivir, Kayle, Leona, Taliyah, Malphite and Aurelion Sol.

Out of these 6, I think the worst of all is Kayle, because she is the champion with the least synergy in the deck itself. Other than that, it is a list with landmarks and Daybreak cards, besides tools to keep your Priestess of Desert Light alive on board.

It seems to be a fun deck, but very hard, and you'll have to make decisions a bit too complicated sometimes to keep yourself alive in the match, even more so against aggressive lists.

But you can luck out and summon an Aurelion Sol for free on turn 7, ending the match once and for all. Obviously, this list isn't at all meta or competitive, but it is the one I've had the most fun trying to make work so far.

These are the 10 lists I'm going to play in the first day of the new set!

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