Deck Tech: Maokai Norra - Perfect Synergy

Norra works well with units/spell/champions that create or summon other units and due to that, many people created decks with Evelynn (because of the Husks), Elise (spiders), Viego (mists) and even with Eye of the Dragon (dragonlings). However, none of those decks have the perfect synergy that this champion has with Maokai.

When Maokai is on the board, every time a unit is summoned, he summons a Sapling and tosses 2 cards from your deck. This Sapling counts for Norra's level up (which is achieved after 6 created allies are summoned) and Maokai's own level up, which is by tossing cards or allies dying. Due to Norra's skill and her trap Mysterious Portal planting followers on the top 4 cards of your deck, when they are activated, if Maokai is on the board, his passive is activated at bust speed, so both champions can level up very quickly!

It's worth mentioning that the spell Vile Feast also fits both champions very well, so their level up progress happens swiftly. After Norra and Maokai are leveled and your opponent has only 4 cards in their deck, just use the spell Eclectic Collection, which will plant a lot of shrooms in their deck and will finish the matches in a rather fun way!

This list has just a few units, but they are all very important for the broad inner workings of the deck. Byrd, the Bellringer is that 1 drop that can't be left out of Bandle City decks. If the chime it plants falls on Norra or on Sea Scarab, you can summon them without worrying about removals on round 2 and start generating value in the matches.

Junk Construct and The Tea Maker are other units that plant portals and have an accessible cost. The highlight goes to The Tea Maker that has 3 power and can block fearsome units.

The Scarab is one of the ones responsible for helping Maokai level up. As your other units are slain, it will toss your deck's cards. After going Deep, this follower becomes a 5/6 unit. Another unit that tosses in this list is Deadbloom Wanderer, which besides tossing, has Lifesteal, so it is quite good in Aggro matchups.

Considering the presence of Shadow Isles in this list, it is very predictable that we would have removals and healing, right? Well, we have Vile Feast, which helps Norra and Maokai's level up progress, due to the Spiderling it summons, Undergrowth which besides draining 2 health points from a unit, tosses 3 cards from your deck. And there are the tougher removals: Vengeance, which slays a unit and The Ruination, which slays all units on board.

Card draw is very important in this deck, because it enables your portals' activations, which bring new units to fill your board. Keep in mind that when Norra is at her level 2, the units that are summoned are high cost units (4,5,6 and 7 mana), so, if your opponent is removing your champion, you can answer with Glimpse Beyond or Pokey Stick to extract her value even when her life is at its end.

If your board is full, don't worry, because portal units go to your hand, in fleeting form, so you can overwrite a unit or attack and give up some units, to put in new ones.

In this list there is still the 1 copy of Shadow Isles Tellstones, which can help you in many situations, due to this spell's versatility. Magical Journey is another spell that plants chimes and portals and finally, there is this deck's finisher: Eclectic Collection. The ideal way to use this spell is late game, when Maokai will already have tossed most of your opponent's cards, so that this way, they can lose due to the amount of shrooms present in the few cards that are left in their deck.

Keep in mind that if your board is full (6 units), 18 shrooms and 6 flashbombs are going to be planted in your opponent's deck and 18 chimes and 6 portals will be planted in your own deck.

As we are in a giant units meta, Minimorph can be an excellent addition to this list. In case you're facing too many Aggro decks, I suggest the addition of Withering Wail and if you start to have problems with equipment, it might be interesting to add in a few copies of Quietus.

Your reasoning as you're playing this deck is the following: I need to level up my champions as quickly as possible. So the idea is to always keep Norra, Vile Feast, Junk Construct and Sea Scarab in your initial hand. If you're facing slower decks, you can keep Maokai in your mulligan. If you're against Aggros, keep Deadbloom Wanderer.

It is very important to put Maokai early on your board, because he can level up very quickly due to the portals' activations. If you have a Scarab on board, it is great. Two? Perfect scenario! You will play reactively, attacking with your Saplings and blocking with the least valuable units, because it is important that your units are killed, because by dying they also make Maokai level up faster.

After your champions level up, you hardly lose, so the strategy is to hold on as much as possible till this happens.

Decks that don't have many ways to answer your champions as Timeline Decks or Kai'Sa are very favorable matchups. Even against Aggro matchups, if you can get your healing units and spells, it is quite easy.

Now, against matchups such as Viego, Nasus Kindred and Gwen Elise Katarina, it is very hard to win, as there are huge fearsome units that you won't be able to block and Kindred almost always marks your Norra or Maokai and you don't have many ways to answer them.

This is the deck I have been having the most fun with lately and I even managed to get some top cuts in tourneys with this list, so I hope you guys enjoyed getting to know this deck and I hope you play with it and have fun as much as I have.

Any other questions about this list, you ask them in the comment section! ;)