Deck Tech: Yuumi/Pantheon - The most dominant deck in the meta!

Since it was released, Pantheon has worked very well with Demacia and its main partners have been Shyvana and Taric — but then came the

A Curious Journey

expansion and we found out who was planned to be Atreus' best friend. Yes, herself, the magic cat: Yuumi. Yuumi and Pantheon work very well together, but the kitten, actually, can transform any unit in the deck into your win condition. Just connect it to someone and target allies each round to level up the Pantheon. And if you can't win with the big unit that Yuumi is attached to, the warrior of Mount Targon arrives at the board with his Indestructible Spear, ready to finish the game with his various keywords. Pantheon works as a match finisher, since it comes with several keywords when leveling up — after all, who can stop a unit with Scout, Elusive, and Spell Shield? And look, I only said three keywords, if you're lucky, others can come much better. Despite being a finisher, in some matches you can play Pantheon earlier, in round 4, to put pressure on your opponent. As the deck has several combat, protection and buff spells, you can attack without fear and if you have a Yuumi to connect to your Pantheon, great, you're half way there. Yuumi can only attach to one ally and you can't take her from the currently connected ally to another one, unless that unit dies, so if you want to switch hosts, you'll need to let your unit die. With Yuumi connected, it's essential that you always attack with the unit Yuumi is assisting – because, on the third attack, the kitten will level up and offer a spell shield per round to the connected ally, so even if the opponent takes their shield off, it will be reset in the next round. The deck doesn't have that many followers, but all of them are essential and, believe it or not, any one of them can become a giant unit that will lead you to victory. I will explain the role of each one, to make it clear for you the importance of each one and how they work in the deck. The Saga Seeker is the best 1 cost unit in the game, due to the keyword

fated

, causing him to gain +1+1 whenever he is targeted by some spell or ability, such as example the barrier that the Brightsteel Protector grants. This is her role in the deck and this sequence of Saga Seeker in round 1 and Brightsteel Protector in 2 is very strong. The other 2 cost in the deck is Mountain Goat, which generates gems on hit. These gems are fundamental to the functioning of the deck, as you need to target one ally per round and the gem does this targeting role, in addition to having a very low price. If the Goat hits more than once, Pantheon's level-up is almost guaranteed. Probably the strongest unit in Yuumi/Pantheon, the Wounded Whiteflame, is the one you'll want to put all possible buffs on, including Yuumi, of course. Because it's a dragon, it has Fury and whenever it kills someone it grows by +1+1 and the fated one also grows by +1+1, so you can imagine the snowball effect that this unit triggers when it's on the field, huh? If by chance you can give him overwhelm at the beginning of the game, there won't be much for the opponent to do, just accept defeat. The last unit in the deck is the Blinded Mystic, which grants +1+1 to the chosen ally and silences the enemy unit you choose. She is essential in mirror matches, as she can take away the overwhelm, fury, and fated of a giant Whiteflame and in other matches that have very problematic essential units like Petricite Broadwing, Ruin Runner, Grandfather Fae or Eye of the Dragon. This burst silence is extremely strong and can completely unravel the opponent's game. The deck contains several spells, but the main one is Zenith Blade, as overwhelm is a very strong keyword and causes the damage of your gigantic units to pass to the enemy Nexus. Since there are only three copies of it in your deck, it's important to choose wisely who you put it on, but the best targets are Saga Seeker and Wounded Whiteflame. Cataclysm and Golden Aegis serve both to finish games and catch the opponent off guard, as well as speed up Yuumi's level-up, since the new attacks count for her to level up. Single Combat and Concerted Strike in addition to serving as unit removals, serve to the Pantheon's level-up, as when using the spell you are targeting allies. Concerted Strike can even activate the target of the two units chosen for combat, which is excellent. Sharpsight is ideal for blocking elusives, Pale Cascade and Guiding Touch provide card draws and the latter is very good against more aggressive matches. And again, they all serve as counters for Pantheon to level up. Finally, there's a copy of Bastion, in case any units are about to be eliminated, and Hush that can be very good for stopping a problematic unit or even an enemy Pantheon in a mirror match. Usually, you will choose to keep your curve. An excellent starting hand would have Saga Seeker, Brightsteel Protector or Mountain Goat, Zenith Blade, and Yuumi. Pantheon, being your main win condition, can be kept as well, especially in mirror matches. Your mulligan will only be different against aggros, as Yuumi/Pantheon has a lot of difficulty against this type of deck, so against them it's best to keep all low cost units in hand and the Guiding Touch as well. If you're not fighting aggro decks, where you're only going to focus on surviving, your posture will be to level up Pantheon, constantly trying to target allies each round and building an alternate win condition in case Pantheon doesn't show up. In this case, this alternate win condition will be to put Yuumi in the Wounded Whiteflame and make him huge. And remembering again that it is extremely important and essential to place the Zenith Blade on it. Against a deck with a lot of removals, like Caitlyn / Ezreal and Swain / Gnar, you need to be more cautious, and it's almost always essential to have extra mana to bluff responses in enemy removals. Guiding Touch and Bastion are extremely indispensable in these clashes, in addition to leveling Yuumi, due to the Spell Shield she grants to the connected unit. Against large board decks like Akshan / Sivir, Scouts and Faes, the win condition will be upgraded Pantheon or again, a giant Whiteflame with overwhelm. At various times you will have to be cold and use the Nexus as a resource, letting damage pass and focusing on returning damage. Golden Aegis and Cataclysm can make a difference in these clashes.

Sivir / Akshan

Despite building extensive boards, Sivir / Akshan units will always be smaller than those present in Yuumi / Pantheon, so the exchanges will be favorable for Pantheon, who will be able to return all the damage received with a fatal attack from a Whiteflame, for example. Also, Sivir/Akshan has a hard time removing Pantheon.

Scouts

It's the same thing that happens in the last case, but even worse: Scouts don't have any combat spells. That is, no ways to remove Pantheon or any other giant unit. In this confrontation, Yuumi/Pantheon can use the Nexus as a resource, find Zenith Blade and propose the damage back to the opponent's Nexus. Pantheon and Cataclysm are also essential for destroying the Scouts deck.

Darkness

The deck even has ways to stop Yuumi / Pantheon with Vengeance, Minimorph and Wallop, but the first two spells are expensive and the last one just stop Pantheon for one attack and if the player has a Cataclysm, the stun will be useless. In addition, there is the presence of Golden Aegis in Yuumi / Pantheon's deck which is very strong against Senna / Veigar's deck, and if the unit that has Yuumi connected attacks 3x, it's gone, right? One spell shield per round and makes the situation even more difficult for the Darkness deck.

Caitlyn / Ezreal

Scorched Earth is the key to finish off Yuumi / Pantheon and in Caitlyn / Ezreal - there are already 3 copies of the spell and sometimes the units in the deck with Pantheon are so large that it is useless to use an Advisory Touch, for example. Spell shield doesn't do much good either, as there are several fast spells on the other side that take the shield off easily, so Yuumi / Pantheon ends up suffering a lot in this confrontation.

Swain / Gnar

Here the situation is also similar to the previous one, as there is the presence of Scorched Earth in Swain / Gnar's deck. Also, a leveled up Swain + Leviathan on the field simply destroys Yuumi / Pantheon, due to the 3 stuns that Swain manages to propose.

Gnar / Ziggs

As an aggro deck, Gnar / Ziggs has many low cost units and Yuumi / Pantheon is a slower deck, which drops practically one unit per round, when the hand helps. So he can suffer a lot in this confrontation, with the aggro deck dropping numerous creatures and hitting without thinking, and not having many answers to us to stop the attacks. In addition, there are several burn cards in Gnar Ziggs, such as Decimate, Noxian Fervor and Pokey Stick. As I put in the subtitle, this was the deck that made me reach Diamond, so I highly recommend that you also play with it and my main advice is to take it easy and know how to use resources well. Yuumi / Pantheon can play well against most decks and even hard to beat decks are playable, so stay calm and focused. If you have any questions about the deck, just ask in the comments and I'll answer, ok? See you next time! ;)