LoR: Patch 5.6 - PvP Balance Changes Review

Today, we'll review all PvP balance changes in patch 5.6.

Yeah! We got a few PvP changes, even though PvP is no longer Riot's main priority in Legends of Runeterra.

Let's review every change and see how they might impact the current meta.

The meta is full of Elder Dragon lists. They're practically more than 50% of all Standard decks, if we consider all Elder Dragon decks.

Dragon lists, additionally, are one of the best lists in the game right now, and often have over 54% win rate against a vast majority of favorable matchups.

The problem is that the best decks to play against Dragons also use Elder Dragon, and are typically "pseudo-Dragon" lists as well. This makes PvP incredibly unsatisfying, considering the best deck only loses to itself, basically.

What most players wanted from this update was a change that weakened Dragon lists, or perhaps a viable alternative to beat them.

Enraged Firespitter: This card was a 6/4, now it is a 5/3.

This change shows how Riot is significantly behind when it comes to understanding the meta. Anyone who has been playing the game lately can tell you that Enraged Firespitter is no longer an extremely powerful card, and only really shows up in Overwhelm lists with Might. Actually, most Elder Dragon decks don't use this card anymore, or just use one copy of it.

This nerf won't affect Dragon lists; it will affect Overwhelm archetypes. From a competitive standpoint, this change isn't healthy, even more so because we are in desperate need of aggressive lists right now (the meta is full of Midrange decks), and this nerf might just be too much. It might simply kill this card.

Horned Swarmcaller: This card cost 6 mana, now it costs 7.

This is an extremely welcome change. Horned Swarmcaller is currently the best control card in the entire game because of its effect, which disables keywords and reduces the attack power of enemy units. This means that it, alone, destroys Elusive and Overwhelm strategies, and Kai'Sa's entire archetype.

This unit is incredibly vital for the game's competitive ecosystem. It is a great meta tuner, that is, it will always pop up when we need to deal with an abusive strategy. The problem is that most players used it as a tempo unit instead of a control unit. As a result, making it more expensive makes a lot of sense: it will stop players from curving out Dragon Boons perfectly with Swarmcaller on turn 6, and like so guarantee an unstoppable unit on their board.

Dragon Ambush: This card cost 5 mana, now it costs 6.

Out of all the most frustrating cards to play against in the Ephemerals archetype, by far, this one was the worst. Dragon Ambush, at times, was just a bit unfair, particularly when your opponent seemingly didn't have any other resources and this was the only card in their hand.

Furthermore, in perfect Ephemeral matches, it was possible to manage your spell mana really well to the point that you could develop units and play Dragon Ambush on the same turn. All of these free resources were incredibly toxic, considering the archetype that used this spell is an all-in deck. An all-in deck shouldn't have infinite resources precisely because they'd spend it all as they went all-in, and Dragon Ambush gave it way more resources than it should.

Another problem was that this card heals your Nexus, and was in one of the most powerful, fast lists in the entire game. So, this list was incredibly strong against other aggressive decks as well. That's one of the reasons why we so desperately need aggressive decks in the meta: not even aggressive lists lose to other aggressive lists because they heal themselves.

This is a very welcome nerf in the current context of the game.

Ancient Yeti: This card cost 7 mana, now it costs 9.

This unit was practically a staple in Elder Dragon archetypes. Now that it has been nerfed, I believe it is dead.

The main idea behind this unit was to keep it in your starting hand, and play it on turn 4 as a 5/5 follower with a Dragon Boon. Only now, on turn 4, it will cost 6, and you can't play it until turn 5.

On paper, it doesn't seem like such a drastic change, but you must consider the fact that you'll only be able to play it on turn 5 if you have it in your starting hand. That means, if you draw Ancient Yeti in mid or late turns, you'll still have to wait some time until it's playable; actually, it will take two more turns than before.

I believe Ancient Yeti did, yes, need a change, but, maybe because it is a Yeti, Riot didn't want to change its 5/5 stats - they didn't want to make it too different from other Yetis. It's a shame they ended up killing this follower in the process, as they drastically changed how much it costs.

Aberrant Mageseeker: This card was a 2/3, and now it is a 1/2 with Spirit.

This is actually just a small quality of life change, considering the archetype that plays this unit are Spirit decks. This way, as now Aberrant Mageseeker has Spirit himself, he'll interact with his decks a bit better, as you'll be able to Boost it like the other cards in this archetype.

Sprite Mother: This card was a 2/1, now it is a 2/2.

This change is very unusual, and might even make a difference in the meta.

That is because literally the only card that stopped the Spirit archetype from dominating the meta was Horned Swarmcaller, and, now that it has been nerfed, Spirit archetypes may slowly become a viable, strong meta option.

Keep in mind that this archetype was incredibly popular in the first few weeks of the new set, and the lists themselves were pretty decent. They just struggled to find a place in the meta because of Silence strategies. Even though this is a small change, it might surprise us once the patch is actually here.

Sprite Dance: This card cost 3 mana, now it costs 2.

This spell wasn't popular in the very first Spirit decks, and really went by unnoticed. Now that it costs 3, it is a great protection spell in Spirit archetypes, as it has a lot of synergy with Sprite Mother.

It might be interesting next patch, but I still believe Spirit lists will struggle to dominate the meta because of Silence strategies.

The Heart of the Tree: This card cost 7 mana, now it costs 6.

This change is incredibly relevant, as there is a huge difference between landmarks that cost 6 and landmarks that cost 7. Usually, losing an entire turn summoning a landmark on turn 7 is an extremely slow investment, and might cost you the game if you don't play it carefully.

Now that it costs 6, you'll be able to invest your time without worrying about how much value you'll lose, as you'll have more turns to get back into the game later on.

Because this card's effect, which gives Spirit to your allies globally, is quite powerful, it might even see play outside Boost archetypes. It might even be considered a viable option in other meta decks.

The value it will create for you late game is also incredibly strong, and makes it an alternative win condition for slower control lists that enjoy playing many units on the board.

This will be a very impactful change. It might even put Lillia on the map as a viable champion.

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See you next time!