Who is Akshan, the Rogue Sentinel + Fortune Hunters Deck Tech

Akshan - Who is the Rogue Sentinel in Legends of Runeterra?

Akshan is the newest Riot champion, and the first one to be announced at the same time for all three Runeterra games. The Rogue Sentinel brings to Legends of Runeterra a charismatic figure with a certain arrogance and the desire to do the right thing, unbothered by rules or consequences. However, as they are different games, in Legends of Runeterra he has different mechanics from his League of Legends version. His cards were focused a lot more on his identity as a champion rather than on his LoL's playability.

In Marwi, a Shuriman city dominated by powerful people who made their own rules, a young Akshan always tried to help the people who suffered abuse and negligence, an atypical behavior in town. Because he tried to do the right things, he ended up making a lot of enemies with the people who ruled Marwi, the warlords, and ended up beaten up and left to die. He is rescued by a woman named Shadya, who manages to recover his health and reveals herself to be a Sentinel of Light, seeing in that rogue boy a future sentinel, and starts to train him because she knew one day the Black Mist from Shadow Isles would expand, in an event called The Harrowing.

In Shurima, the ancient tombs hid Sentinels of Light Artifacts from ages prior which would be of great help in the fight against Shadow Isles. But, as it usually happens with these relics, they had been plundered by people who wanted their powers to themselves, the warlords. Akshan and Shadya looked for the plunderers to ask for the artifacts so they could fight the Black Mist, but they were denied. And so, Shadya takes Akshan to her own arsenal to show him the tools they have at their disposal, and there a weapon draws his attention, The Absolver, which Shadya explains to be a powerful weapon which shouldn't be used because it has the power to revive victims of a killer when they are killed by it, which she believes to be fate's responsibility, not a person's. But eventually she confesses that Akshan was saved by that very weapon when he was beaten to death.

Shadya insists on retrieving the weapons from the warlords in a heated argument and ends up killed, leaving Akshan alone with a thirst for vengeance, which leads him down his path to get the treasures back. With this objective of stealing and killing the warlords using his new weapon, The Absolver, Akshan will manage two things: to retrieve the stolen relics and to revive his master when he finds the right person.

You can check out Akshan's Biography here

To fulfill his mission in Legends of Runeterra, Akshan creates the Landmark Warlord's Palace, a countdown landmark that creates a treasure when it reaches zero, the Relic of Power. This monument represents the plunder that Akshan is planning: each play you make and each turn that goes by he gets closer and closer to retrieving one of the artifacts. When he reaches that goal, he finds the Warlord's Hoard, where the most precious treasures are stored, and it is at this time that Akshan kills this warlord. When the hoard is open, the Sentinel's Hoard is found and presents three options, which represent treasures related to the Sentinels of Light and to Akshan himself:

• The Absolver's Resurrection: represents Akshan's hunt for wrongdoers and the ally that will be revived with the warlord's death.

• Fount of Power: Isolde's thimble and needle, objects of extreme importance to her and consequently to Viego.

• Shield of Sentinels: a Helia stone, old capital of the Blessed Isles, where the weapons and artifacts of the Sentinels were made.

When this plundering ends, Akshan begins preparing a new one, but ideally you'll already be winning the match at this point.

The beginning of an expansion is always a great moment to test out new decks. I really like midrange decks with plenty of interaction with my opponents, so this was the first deck that I created and played. In 20 matches I climbed from Platinum 3 to Diamond with only three losses, so I can definitely recommend this deck. It plays very well against today's midranges, which are not using that many interactions and it can hold its own against an aggro deck such as Pirates.

Sivir and Akshan go really well together: both have quick attack, make good use of buffs and are quite independent when deckbuilding, and both are fortune hunters in their stories, so they are thematically related. I wouldn't question, for instance, that Sivir once was hired by warlords to hunt the Sentinels of Light's relics that Akshan wants to retrieve.

This is a champion focused deck, with the Golden Ambassador you can always count you'll draw at least one of them during the match. Use Akshan and Sivir to remove enemy units in your attack turn by playing the vulnerable effects you can: Rock Hopper, Merciless Hunter and Ruthless Predator.

In defensive turns, make sure to get good trades or sacrifice a little bit of health. The Ruthless Predator and Grappling Hook combo is very strong, especially when cast on Sivir, which has the safety of Spell Shield, but if your opponent has no way to answer it, it is always best to use it with Akshan to speed up your Landmarks' countdowns. Another good option for 8 mana is to use Concerted Strike or Siphoning Strike and then Grappling Hook to remove two enemy units as you work on both of your champion's Level Ups.

Don't spend too many resources trying to keep Akshan alive, even when dying in combat he still speeds up Warlord's Palace and you can buy another one at 4/4 with the Golden Ambassador. Avoid using The Absolver defensively, and wait so you can use it with a levelled Sivir on board, as the card becomes a great finisher as it gives 2/1 buffs two times and also overwhelm to all your allies.

With Relic of Power I've chosen "Predict, then draw 1" in 99% of the time, using Sandstone Charger only once when I managed to get him in a really strong attack. For Warlord's Hoard, try to get the countdown to zero at roundstart or using only one card to really take advantage of Fount of Power, which has been the best option for me.

I would use The Absolver's Resurrection only if I had a full board and the enemy didn't, so I could get my strongest units to attack while I challenge the enemy's units with my weakest units; I didn't feel the need to use the Shield of Sentinels very much, but I believe against control decks such as Feel The Rush it can be very good if you have both champions on board.

Mulligan: Keep your champions and Golden Ambassador in hand. There are 9 removal spells in the deck and you depend on your champions to use them. Against aggro decks, prioritize any low cost unit, the most important is to survive. Against decks that use heavy spells such as Ruination and Feel The Rush, keep Rite of Negation.

Recently I played this deck in a tournament and you can see its gameplay below:

If you like charisma, strong emotions and a little arrogance, Akshan is a nice champion for you. He has simple playability, but it represents him well, and, alongside Viego, it's really contributing to the progression of Runeterra's story like never before.

If you've chosen the Sentinel's Side, you already have at least one copy of him, and possibly his prismatic version, so you can already start building your deck. Besides this article's deck, there are plenty of other strong decks being created with him, such as Lee Sin Akshan or Sivir Akshan combo, so he is a good investment.

Any questions, I'm at your disposal in the comment section. See you next time!