Deck Tech: Kennen Ezreal - A lot of burn for just a bit of mana

Kennen and Ezreal is basically an Ezreal list with Ionia.

Ezreal, at level 2, has the power to end games very quickly, his ability is to deal 1 damage to the enemy nexus for each spell played. In case the spell targets an enemy, you deal 2 damage.

Usually Ezreal is removed the second he drops on board, but in Ionia you find many protections.

Kennen works nicely with Ezreal, because besides having a low cost, he creates a Mark of the Storm, a 0 cost spell, quick, which targets an enemy, a perfect card for our main character.

This deck has the potential to end the game more quickly than conventional Ezreal lists, because you only need to stall the game enough to have both champions leveled and then to be able to finish it with the burn that Ezreal brings.

As we count with cheap cards and a lot of draw, it also filters very nicely.

We have a lot of recall effects, to help Kennen's level up.

We don't have any 1 cost followers, the only one is the champion himself, Kennen, and that is so as to not mess with Kinkou Wayfinder.

Speaking of her, Kinkou Wayfinder is an Allegiance unit. Allegiance is a keyword which has an effect when it is summoned and the top of your deck is the same region as the card, Ionia's brings from the deck a 1 cost unit, which in our case will always be Kennen.

A very powerful card in this deck is Sai'nen Thousand-Tailed, a 6 cost unit, which has good numbers, and besides drawing 2 cards when it's summoned, gives +1/+1 for all allied units.

God-Willow Seedling has a very powerful combo with Sai'nen Thousand-Tailed, this landmark returns an ally to summon an ephemeral copy of it and after a countdown of 3, it summons another ephemeral copy, that is, for 3 mana, you can draw 2 and still give +1/+1 for the whole board.

The champions are partners in crime: one brings the ammo and the other, the gun.

Kennen

Though he is a 1 cost unit, Kennen doesn't do well when he is summoned on round 1. He will always bring a Mark of the Storm, but the problem of this mark is it being fleeting. You need to use it to progress Ezreal's level up.

To level Kennen up, you need to summon the same unit 5 times.

This requirement seems complicated, but the deck gives you plenty of tools to be able to reach this goal, such as: Recall, Retreat, Homecoming and Navori Conspirator.

Eye of the Dragon is a big gun in this list. You will easily play the 2 spells necessary to activate the effect of getting a Dragonling. The Dragonling can be summoned every round if you use your spells well, and thus, Kennen will easily level up only with the Dragonlings.

After he is leveled, every time Kennen attacks he will create a mark and in case he is blocked, he creates another one. To sum up, either the opponent blocks and takes 2 damage or they don't and take 3 damage.

Ezreal

This champion has his reputation to uphold since beta: loved by some, hated by many.

The part of this list I like the most is how you can get this champion down on board to get value out of Mystic Shot, as there are many protections.

Ezreal creates a Mystic Shot every time he strikes the nexus. It is very risky to attack with this champion and get answers such as Sharpsight, Hush and Quicksand, but then you have good answers too such as Retreat, by 3 mana you get Ezreal out of combat and back onto the board, helping even Kennen level up.

Your job will be to level him up and gather the most Mark of the Storms you can find in hand to make a burn machine gun in one turn and finish the game.

What is there to say about Eye of the Dragon, an incredible card since launch? In decks with a lot of draws and spells it's where she shines.

A 2 cost unit, which refills one spell mana and if that isn't enough it summons a Dragonling. We can say she is the aggro nightmare and she will help you stall games a lot till your champions are able to win the game.

Also, Eye of the Dragon can help Kennen level up because of how many Dragonlings you can summon.

Once one of the most problematic cards in all LoR, currently it is just an elusive unit which strikes for 2 and helps bouncing something back to the hand with the purpose of activating its "When I'm summoned" effect again.

In this list he recalls Kennen, but this is one of the most depressing options. His real job is to bounce back Kinkou Wayfinder and get multiple Kennens on board.

This unit which was in the spotlight for a very long time, is 3 mana, draws 1 and is a pretty decent unit on board. After her nerf she went to 1 health, becoming more vulnerable.

Yet, she will help filter your deck a lot and find key cards. As drawing is very important in this deck, she will be a good target for the recall effect.

This follower is so powerful that she was nerfed twice after Kennen's launch, making this list go from extremely POTENT, to just strong. To have the potential to have the same champion twice on board is quite powerful.

With the help of God-Willow Seedling it is possible to trigger Kinkou Wayfinder summon effect again, and as such having two Kennens on board.

Probably the biggest gun in Ionia, this card had the power to shake up the meta and the way we build decks.

Drawing 2 in Ionia was never the problem, but buffing your own board and still get a very good unit, that is news.

With God-Willow Seedling you can repeat this insane summon effect for just 3 mana and honestly, if that happens, hardly your opponent will be able to recover from this created value.

We will talk first about the cards which will give you time to work out your strategies.

We only take one Sonic Wave, because there aren't many units with which to use it. Sonic Wave creates a Resonating Strike, and this way Eye of the Dragon summons a Dragonling.

This burst spell is used as a removal, and suddenly you will have a Kennen hitting for 4 and challenging an opponent's Sivir and it is GG!

Concussive Palm and Homecoming

All you need in this list is tempo, so there isn't any way better to do that except bouncing back a big gun to the opponent's hand or stunning an enemy unit and still get a good blocker.

Concussive Palm has become an indispensable card since launch because of the tempo it creates. Homecoming is starting to be replaced by Ionian Tellstones, a card that creates other cards, one of them Homecoming itself. This way, we can create Dragonling with consistency and we can add other cards that have the effect of "I do this bonus effect if you played two or more spells last round".

Homecoming can even be used on Tail of the Dragon and making him come back to your hand as a Concussive Palm.

Protections

Twin Disciplines is a very strong protection. especially after the balancing. To be able to give 3 life to a unit for just 2 mana is quite powerful.

Recall returns the threatened unit back to your hand, the problem is having to spend mana again to develop it back onto the board. In this deck your units are very cheap, so that ends up not being at all that inconvenient.

Retreat is even more based: after casting it, you get Return, making you able to summon a 3 cost unit for just 1 mana, at burst speed.

Denies

I decided to make a bullet point just for them. Denies are used to refill your mana. It is very bad to use a Deny in an ability or a spell with the same cost or less than 3 cost, and that is why spells such as rally are so good, by costing 4, they are out of reach of Nopeify! and have the same cost as Deny.

As you will spend a lot of mana to do all the returns and developments, it is very important to be able to have a part of it back with denies. The dream is to be able to deny big spells such as Atrocity, Feel The Rush.

Here usually you can work with any hand, because of the cost of the cards. But we will give preference to our win condition.

The champions are great in your initial hand, Eye of the Dragon and Shadow Assassin are great support cards which are very nice to have in your initial hand.

Remember, if your opponent doesn't put pressure on early, you will want to have Kinkou Wayfinder on turn 4, followed by some recall so that you can play her on board again. With 2 level 2 Kennens on board, hardly ever you will lose this game.

The deck runs out of gas easily, so it is important to have these card draws always ready to be used.

Get to know your opponent's deck, know exactly which protections you need to have in hand and go after your goals!

This list does well against aggressive and expensive unit oriented lists.

Lurk

Lurk is a list that needs to be constantly attacking.

You can focus all your efforts on Kennen and Eye of the Dragon, this way you get good blockers, healing and stuns to stop some important attacks - as in attacks from overwhelm units, or Rek'sai's .

Another very important thing is to always keep a Deny in hand to stop Pyke's spell, which is, honestly, one of the best removals in the game. By denying this spell, you prevent this champion's level up, take from your opponent a unit development and still protect your unit. STONKS!

Aggro in General

You take advantage of Eye of the Dragon and small units to help you defend yourself in the beginning, the late game is always yours, so don't spare your resources when it's time to defend yourself from Aggros.

With future draws, it gets easier to recover from the game's initial rounds.

Deep

A list that is coming back into the meta, suffers very much against Ezreal and Kennen.

Deep's removals are all very expensive, the deck needs to get Nautilus down on board and a Homecoming ends this champion's dreams.

Let's just say it is basically a race of who gets to their strategy first, but you can sabotage your opponent's plans very efficiently, making this matchup quite easy!

On the other side, this list suffers a lot against midrange which can build a horizontal and tough board. In general, Demacia is the nightmare.

Taliyah Ziggs

Though it isn't Demacia, it is a list which can make a lot of plays that make you FLY in tempo. Ziggs alone is already a 3 mana which at level 2 has 4 power and 5 health, it is way too much!

This list doesn't care about not attacking in one or two turns, but at the moment it does, it can strike you down with one hit. Eventually you run out of stuns.

Aphelios Fizz

More known as the shimmer deck, this list doesn't stop creating more and more offensives. A lot of pressure comes down early on board without it being behind on value because of the faes. It gets really complicated to deal with all this aggression.

I believe Will of Ionia can come back to seeing play, as it is an expensive unit heavy counter and Nautilus coming back into the meta becomes a perfect target for this type of spell.

Homecoming is quite good, but with the arrival of the "Tellstones", Ionia's especifically, which can bring many answers to many situations, can create Homecoming and you would still be playing your spells, getting the effect of a card that I will suggest for this change to get more interesting.

Deep Meditation, simple card, and as long as you have played two spells in the previous round, costs 2 less. For 3 mana, drawing two spells is very powerful, and I recommend the experimentation!

It is a very hyped up list, and with the nerfs it lost much of its power, but it didn't stop being a consistent list, which depends on the metagame a bit.

When a lot of spells and low board presence start to get popular, Kennen and Ezreal start to shine. When Demacia Midrange, plenty of board, and swarming units becomes popular, it is hard to stall them.

Regardless of meta, I find it is very fun to play, there are always plenty of lines to play, and there is a lot of space to be creative.

With the new "play" or "cast" spell rule, many burst lethals with Ezreal have come up and as there was little experimentation, I believe the real potential of this list is yet to be unlocked!

This is my cue, till next article!