It’s really amazing and inspirational how much effort you put in this, you really create new and diverse decks and that’s is just out of the league. By far my favorite content creator here, hands down! Btw, Brazil fan here.
Mog, could you give us a deck creation guide? You give us tips and all of that, but give us a guide on how to create decks, all the needs and wants and such! Thanks!
- Yaoshmite - while that’s true to some degree, there are basic things you need like a good curve (which is different for LoR because of spell mana), the ability to deal with aggro, etc
I'm new to card games. Never played Magic , Heartstone or any other TCG . But I started playing LoR and I love it. A deck building guide would be amazing. It's not just about synergy. I struggle with the right amount of spells and followers in my decks and the cost distribution. Would be nice to see a expert doing one. Right now I'm playing with a Braum/ Poros deck that I made on my own. It's a lot of fun in silver rank but I know it needs to be improved if I want to reach gold.
I think that the best teacher is meta. Even Mogwai can't tell you how too deckbuild with 100% efficiency. You just need to lose and analyse the losses, find weak parts of the deck and fix them if you can. The thing about our fake brazilian bOi is that he plays a lot and has many time to find those weak spots of the deck. So, the answer to your question is practice
guys, to me it seems a bit odd to have a deck creation guide? like what do you expect him to tell you? Deck ideas? There are a ton of decks floating around on youtube, mobalytics, twitch so I suggest you check them out and learn, gain experience by watching videos or playing with the deck. That's how you improve at the game.
I actually brainstormed the idea of combining hecraim, and those that endure as a win condition. You added a ton more then I imagined! Definitely stealing this deck.
yeah, pilfered goods just feel awful to play vs. You can't just expect them to have any card from your deck and play around it because what are the chances. slow decks feel bad where you just get robbed of the resources that you were wanting to top deck are just sitting in your opponent's hand. it screws up the guarantee and ratio of actually getting what you need to draw because that's why it's in your deck. It's one o the very ew things hearthstone did a tad better because as least there they got a copy of the card in most cases. It's one of the reasons I prefer playing aggro currently tho because they can't use extra resources when they're dead. Anyway great gameplay as usual Mogwai and gl man :)
This is why I've been saying that drawing from your enemy deck is a very broken mechanic that I wish they didn't add to this game. In a competitive card game, you try to guess the cards your opponent has in their deck, and what they might have in hand based on what they play, but when they draw from your deck, it's random for you and for them,and any strategy goes out the window... I think a way to fix it is if you could see the cards your enemy draws from your deck
Me: Spends most of my time since the release trying to figure out how to make Maokai Ephemeral cause I know that shit will be amazing Mogwai: Don't worry bro, I got you Edit: for real though I knew this would be a fun and strong archetype and I love your content man. Your love of the off-meta picks is constantly getting me excited to try new things in this game
Yep, I was trying a Maokai Nautilus since the begining cause I loved toss, but was struggling so much with early game decks. Since his decklist, that I made 3 adaptations, I've climbing so much, current in Diamond, and just love to play against aggros now! He is indeed a beast jn deck building
@@AndreNGropo can you please give me some tips to deal with aggro decks? Currently B2 now struggling a bit bcs of these aggro decks... And btw i only have one complete deck, Mogwai's Yasuo/Kat deck.
@@DineudesCA With Maokai/Naut against aggro, your main concern is to make a late game happen, if it does its GG, so you mulligan everything that is not a chump blocker or a heal effect. Also, Maokai is a high priority card for its sapling is a blocker and a challenger. You trade and control everything you can. Around turn 7 you will see yourself with enough health and cards to just go deep and win. The Key is get to turn 6 controlling the board and don't even worry about tossing or going deep, is about surviving. Once yourealize you dont need many sea monsters to win games, it gets easier to play with the deck.
I'm actually laughing so hard right now. I only started playing runeterra about a week ago and started watching your vids soon after. I was theory crafting in my head what I wanted to play and this was literally the exact same deck idea I came up with. Of course I don't actually have the cards yet and I am actual garbage at deck building so I am so happy you're covering this super unique deck concept.
30:14 I feel you Mogwai, the other day some guy used sleight of hand to steal my noxian guillotine (which also was a 1-of) and then used it to kill all of my units which were wounded, tbh I could've played it on one of my units to make it fleeting since he didn't have mana that turn to use though I didnt't realise in time which made me even more pissed
Hey Mogwai, I just started playing LoR this week and your videos have been a big help and are very entertaining, so thanks a lot! I tried this deck and it just seems too slow and vulnerable. It seems like it works only against equally slow decks, like the Ezreal deck in the first match in the video. The second match was some BS haha, I sympathize. Although in general I don't think that the stealing mechanic has not reached critical mass yet and isn't a problem. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up liking a deck that steals cards, because it keeps the experience fresh and thriling for vets like you. The third match in the video, as you pointed out, swung to your favor when the opponent didn't block your first Hecarim attack because of their greedy Elmheart play. The fourth match was my favorite and was very exciting, but as you also pointed out, if the opponent had any way to protect or buff Fiora that would have been game over. Drawing the second Neverglade Collector was also a huge break for you there. You are right that Neverglade Collector is the MVP of this deck. However, until you set up your Neverglade engine this deck is just too passive. You rarely threaten the enemy with attacks, and that allows them to save their spells or challengers for Neverglade and other crucial cards. Same goes when you drop Hecarim. Its main removal is Grasp of the Undying, but because of its cost it's hard to time it because of the many ways it can be countered. Black Spear does work, but it won't always be active. I'm taking a break from my first deck, a Nautilus deck, because it's weak against Elusives. But this is way worse against those. It's also suicide against Fiora-focused decks, because she'll feast on your Prankster, Neverglade and even Maokai. I didn't encounter a Frostbite deck in my run but I imagine this is fodder for that too. It also dies to Hecarim/Maokai mirrors that run Ledros because you can't outrace their damage. Overall I think this deck is suited for a slow meta, which isn't the case right now, at least in my server and rank.
Like the reduce your opponents nexus health to 0 win condition? That happens pretty often. I know you mean the milling, but it doesn't make sense to generalize that statement.
@@danielkatona8778 A win condition in a deck are the important cards that will let you win. They're 2-4 cards that the rest of the deck are built around. You aren't planning to win the game with a black spear, avaorsan sentry, or a glimpse beyond, but if you pull a strong they who endure, that's a card that can single handedly win you a game. He lost to a 13 drop they who endure, which is one of his own win conditions.
Was really looking forward to Neverglade Collector, first time I saw the card I thought it was pretty insane to just drain from the enemy nexus, that sounded cool. And I was thinking about a maokai collector and maybe snapvine deck but just haven’t gotten to making it, but this will give me a lot of inspiration and thoughts when making my own version. Currently just finished making a TF steal opponents deck with riptide as a finisher that splashes piltover for boomcrew and rummage to discard opponent cards I don’t want. Stole so many good cards so much fun
28:40 that they who endure stolen wow 😂 I’ve done better though, I played against kinkou elusive the other day, stole his twice buffed kinkou life blade, his windfriar hatchling, 2 shadow assassins, 1 will of Ionia from his deck, and 1 will of Ionia from his hand. That match felt goooooddd. In an expedition run that gave me the idea for this deck, I stole unyielding spirits from a fiora deck , and used it on my twisted fate 🙃
Can't belive i tried this combo with my friend just a few hours ago, and now i see my favorite LoR MAN with the same concept xD I feel onored to be in the same wave even if i came with this solution cause i love the SHARK ♡ KEEP THE GOOD WORK MOgway^^
You're great bro, and you are right to be proud about it. I love your gameplay and your ideas, and watching you is just super fun and entertaining. I get inspired by your decks and the way you play the game that i actually start getting better myself too. Love you, and keep at it! Btw i was trying to learn Twisted Fate and your latest TF video helped me out really good while i was trying to theorycraft by myself, wanna see TF again soon so im looking forward for it. TF pls.
Neverglade Collector is crazy in Expedition. I recently got six consecutive wins using a totally janky deck I'd thrown together, just because it had two neverglade collectors in it.
I would have gotten a 7 win streak but then decided to sacrifice that same card in this video to overgrown snapvine since I'm cautious at my enemy stealing it.
I am really grateful for all yt videos you created, you inspired me with runeterra and improve my skills in it ;) . I am watching your videos since first runeterra video on yt! I think that's kinda went to my rutine
This deck is awesome. I got drunk as hell and spent two wildcards on Maokai in my stupor, so I was desperately looking for ideas for a deck with him. Will definitely try this out and see how it stacks up with what I’m running now. Thanks for the great video!
34:42 lmao I can't believe you just realized Update: I'm having hard time trying to win with this deck but I finally did against spider aggro, I used 2 atrocity to save my butt at 1 health lol
I have spent the first week of the release trying to build around Maokai and Neverglade Collector without much success at that time. I definitively going to give this a test as I almost gave up :)
Great showcase, love watching your content. Was trying your decks and I'm almost never having games like your first, for example. For most of the time opponents instantly have answers and shut down these types of combos, or they get extremely unlucky in maybe 1 of 20 games. This all looks flashy and cool, but seems to work pretty rarely.
Finally a decent answer the 0 IQ burn aggro that has been the bane of my existence. Tried it out with a bit of modifications (added Thresh cause of the units dying synergy to pull out Mao or Heca) and its super fun! Thanks a lot
I despise that "plunder draw two" card so much, it's even more annoying than stand alone rally bs. I got killed by my own ledros today, it simply sucks when you have bad top decks because the oponent randomly took your best cards.
It's also inherently bad design for both card and video games, because by not knowing what they've stolen from you AND by the effects being burst speed, you have no real way of playing around them and you've lost valuable resources to something completely uninteractive. Say what you will about Hearthstone, at least its thief cards only add copies of the opponents cards to your hand instead of outright stealing them.
I agree so much on this. The opponent wins with your winning condition even if his hand is shit in that game. Which defeats the purpose of interaction phase riot is commending themselves so much about. Riot needs to fix this before it gets too out of hand and lose them players.
the people commenting about "muh burst speed card draw" are smooth brains. That being said, the card is fucking ridiculous. It's the cheapest card draw in the game for what it does, has a ton of synergy with the potential to actually play the cards with more strength than the actual owner could, and the feeling of losing because your opponent topdecked your own win condition is absolutely awful.
I love your videos!! I used to just play LoR on the offhand but your videos really got me into the game. I watch ur videos before I sleep every night, it's like a ritual haha
Love ephemural decks. Been the main deck ive played since start of beta. Question though, why is soul shepard not included in this sort of deck. Just curious what the reasoning for leaving it out is.
Oh come ooon, here I was running the hecarim-zed deck and thinking "zed is becoming kind of a liability in this deck, maybe I should try maokai to enable the ephemerals". Also me: Wow, blighted caretaker is gonna be pretty good in this deck. 2 days lates this video comes out, GET OUT OF MY HEAD LOL. Seriously though you're the one who got me into runeterra videos so seeing this is pretty cool. I'm still using Ionia as a splash for spells though hahah keep up with the nice decks man
Men don't know when if you used that deck on a stream or not, but today a faced 2 of those with a shitty demacia/ionia deck made in like 3 mins just for doing the quest, won both games, maybe they played it wrongly or it's really weak against fast, low cost cards decks. And i really mean it, my deck's higher cost was 3 because the quest was "play demacia or ionia units", so i just grabbed the cheapest i could that could somehow work and went ahead to do it asap xD
Thank you for this! I asked you yesterday about my ephemerals deck and this looks much more potent! Sadly don't have a maokai for it. I'll try subbing him with kalista though I'm not sure how good that will be. Thanks! Lovely to see shark chariot love ;)
Neverglade is my favorite card now! I don't have much champions yet so I've been playing a champless deck with him. My favorite combo is: Neverglade + Hapless + Snapvine then Chronicler the Hapless Does 5 damage to nexus, heals your nexus for 5 then adds multiple 4|3 units on the board
Mogwai this deck is awesome I am currently using it but I added 3 deadbloom wanderer for that extra lifesteal and toss to level maokai alot quicker. Thanks dude your a inspiration to the lor community
Hi Megamogwai. I have spent 3 days doing this deck. It takes me a while as I am not all here and it is tough to do sometimes. But I know that you like Yasuo. I made this deck for him if you like to try out. Here is the list. Yasuo x3 Swain x2 Steel Tempest x3 Blade's Edge x3 Arachnoid Sentry x3 Legion General x1 Intimidating Roar x2 The Leviathan x2 Fae Bladetwirler x3 Legion Saboteur x3 Concussive Palm x2 Ravenous Flock x3 Minotaur Reckoner x1 Dragon's Rage x2 Shadow Assassin x2 Retreat x3 Deny x2 Draw power in Retreat combo with Shadow Assassin in the Return. Dragon's Rage to Finish games or recall the enemies threat. A lot of ping nexus potential and stunning. A pretty good deck that supports both Yasuo and Swain. Enjoy! 🤗
Love the content mogwai, keep it up 🙂 You have written Vlad off but try a steffen, Vlad, stormclaw ursine deck... It's so much fun, transfusion shananigans!! It beats this deck quite consistently
I find Neverglade collector interaction with Maokai really sad instead of him being bored. It's like Maokai is angry at him but the way he said "What was I supposed to do?" it's like he's forced to do something he didn't want, like "I have no other choice, I had to". sad :'(
Yo I literally brought up this concept on your reaction to the reveal but no body said anything and even you didn't bring it up at the time. Excited to see it.
I only started playing LoR this week after leaving Magic about the same time Mogs did, I've noticed that this ephemeral arcetype has a kind of hidden advantage over others due to the six unit limit, you can attack with six and block with six but they don't have to be the same six. With other decks in the little I've played so far, having space for your synergy pieces and enough fodder units to block and attack with has sometimes been a choke point but summoning a bunch of ephemeral buddies in the red zone without it taking up your core six units is pretty neat.
It's kind of the heart of Runeterra, I feel like this game would be way easier if there wasn't a board limit. You'd just have people summoning stuff galore, honestly. The limit means you can't just have tons of fodder while you protect your combo pieces or w/e, and it feels good to force your opponent to use important cards to block.
I've been testing the deck and the curve is weird. Your turn 4/5 is a toss up between Maokai, and Collector. The Prankster is a win-more since it bottlenecks the curve at 3 doing nothing on the turn it drops. The Shark though is a bomb here. It's a recurring Phoenix for cheaps. I'm testing Oblivious Islander to adjust the curve and it works well with Shark, Cursed Keeper and Blighted Caretaker. Draven/Jinx/Scout matchups are difficult. Competitive idk
Update guys: I've found a good synergy using Katarina and Maokai Abusing Katarina's rally, giving all Saplings a purpose in each of the turns. I hope Mogwai can brew it soon, I wanted to share it to Mog but I don't have twitch nor twitter. Srylol
@@SincerityJoy If you don't mind me asking, what did you dropped in the deck to add Katarina & Oblivious Islander to make them work along the rest of the deck? Thanks in advance!
Interesting take on Maokai my dude. At some point I'd love to see your take on an Unyielding Spirit Control deck - I've tried it with Ashe/Fiora and it's a lot better than expected.
Swim: Ehh prankster burn's kinda a meme. Use it for surprise factor Community: Oh yeah totally agree low tier 2 Mogwai: but did you know Maokai? Ladder next day: Prankster, prankster, prankster, prankster, elusive burn, prankster, prankster, poros
I just took a page from your book and built a championless deck. Mine however bridges Piltover and Bilgewater and the key figure is Professor Yip, along with some really fun one drops including butcher, prowling cutthroat, astute acedemic who already benefits from card draw and a host of other fun tool box units brought forth by the spells like jail break and units like Petty Officer and my favorite scout Island Navigator. The rest of my game centers around card draw both mine and my opponent's cards and the dreaded removal/face smacking cards. It is one Hell of an irreverent and fun deck, because though it has has a key strategy in superbuffing 1 drops when they hit the field it really does turn out to be an all around toolbox deck between stealing from your opponent and the randomness of the one drops. I also wanted to test Island Navigator to see if she'd actually drop a Fizz or Teemo in a deck not running any champions with all 6 slots freed up, she hasn't yet, but I'll keep going with it.
@@pancakepuppy5880 You are right, that depends on how they coded it. But @setshuei logic is ideally what should have happened: fiora kills the first two and they ping 2 damage, game over.
By seeing the gameplay, whenever fiora effects procs, the enemy takes 1 damage, so probably the game was won anyway, but, for example, if the enemy had 4 health, the fiora would win first
I was just talking about this deck concept with a friend who's wanting to do sea monsters. I don't think maokais place is there. I wanted to see maokai in ephemeral or "death matters" style decks with hecarim or maybe Lucien. Thanks for sharing this!
Maokai actually provides great support in sea monster decks because he enables deep super easily. You don’t play him for the milling, just to toss and the little saplings are a nice addition to stabilise the board to give you time to play Nautilus.
I made a deck like this recently except it does lean more into the toss and but strictly with deathbloom wanderer, Thorny toad for life sustain and scavenge as the only 3 of from bilgewater for card draw. Nuking their deck and then overwhelming them with hecarim is so addicting.
Do you think maybe shadow Isles needs a nerf? It's my favorite region, but they seem to be good at everything - you have early burst with the combo you mentioned, you got card draw with glimpse, you a lot of removal and healing, and slap 3 endures in there and you have a late game beast. Maybe at least make the 4/4 a 4/3?
Oh dude! I just subbed. But a heads up though dude. Make sure they don't get to you. Even as randoms. They like to attack. That is their nature. With that, you are good dude. 😋
Love the deck was just thinking of something similar earlier today but you executed it perfectly, I keep wanting to get the soul maiden to work in a deck like this but she just feels so mehhh
Hope mogwai see this. But i experimented a deck with prankster and neverglade pairing with Fiora and unyielding will. And a lot of buff spells and 1 mana cost followers. And for late game you have a commander ledros in deck. I just thought of that deck but its some times hard when it comes especially will of Iona.
I actually have a question in your last game when your opponent used judgement could u have won without the atrocity when u are draining 1 from the enemy nexus while his judgement killed one unit after another. So does judgement kill all at once or one after another? enabling fiora a instant win or a win after 4 of ur units dying in a row i hope u understand what i mean im from germany so it could be hard to understand :/
He would win anyway, if you look after the judgement is done, the caretaker is doing damage for every unit killed while fiora marks the nexus, so the opponent would die before Fiora killed 4.
@@Vicesplay that means judgement doesnt kill all at the same time but in a row so after the first 2 kills the enemy pretty much killed himself with judgement ?
What a nice deck. What a nice vid. Honestly I love what the LoR team has been doing so far, but the mechanic of drawing from the opponents deck has to go. It is the most frustrating thing to see a card that was in your deck ruin the game for you. The worst part about it is that it isn't even a good mechanic in terms of effectivness. It adds a huge variance to the games it is present in. I'm still waiting for that Kayle with 5 Levels.
41:07 thought I'd learn how to play vs Fiora as "they who endure" deck, but you just got lucky =) Enemy did not have "single combat" or "deny" (and that's 6 cards we didn't see on turn 7)
Yeah, luck is a crucial factor of this game, I play Yasuo deck and in some match I have 6 cards with 6 6 7 7 9 9 costs in hand at the round 6 vs burn deck T__T
The second game is a perfect example for the "plunder" mechanic being uterly broken and un-fun. With drawing from you opponent's deck you eliminate one mayor weakness from the aggro decks; poor scaling into the late game. If you are up against a control deck and you get to steal "They who endure" or hard removal like vengeance you get tools to transition towards a decent or even perfect late game. I'm a bit biased to be honest though, I mainly play control or midrange and don't like aggro. Still, other card games have these mechanics to but in MTG, these effects are expensive and sub-optimal because you have the colour system and with Hearthstone you make random copies so your opponent doesn't lose cards. There should be some restrictions implemented to make the "plunder" mechanic more balanced.
Mogwai, I was thinking, maybe try a plunder maokai deck. Like with bilgewater and shadow isles, you proc maokai level up quickly and then you just draw all the opponents cards with plunder. Will that work?
i actually belive that the "take a card from your oponent deck" mechanic shoul be nerfed a lot. Like +1 mana to each of those cards. In theory is a not so well mechanic because you get "not sinergy cards" but in reality if you play aggro decks you are just getting more options for late game.
Hecarim is still lowkey pretty good, I run him alongside Zed and Kallista. I still don't have any of the new SI cards though. EDIT: I absolute DESPISE the draw from opponent mechanic, it's beyond annoying and obnoxious AF. If it was draw a COPY of a card from your opponent that'd be fine, that's actually kinda cool. But it's basically super mill and just one of my most hated mechanics in card games, period (See: Agent of Treachery MTG)
![The Complete Story of Destiny! From origins to Shadowkeep [Timeline and Lore explained]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9mbDXvDNqTU/mqdefault.jpg)
The hecarim synergy is actually crazy though when you think about the saplings
Combined with the shark, it's so fun to surprise the enemy lol
@Sagittarius A* that's a progress. Usually Demacia fights against itself.
I can see Kallista being fun as well
It’s really amazing and inspirational how much effort you put in this, you really create new and diverse decks and that’s is just out of the league. By far my favorite content creator here, hands down! Btw, Brazil fan here.
Mog, could you give us a deck creation guide? You give us tips and all of that, but give us a guide on how to create decks, all the needs and wants and such! Thanks!
Just know your card mechanics and synergies, the deck building follows
- Yaoshmite - while that’s true to some degree, there are basic things you need like a good curve (which is different for LoR because of spell mana), the ability to deal with aggro, etc
I'm new to card games. Never played Magic , Heartstone or any other TCG . But I started playing LoR and I love it. A deck building guide would be amazing. It's not just about synergy. I struggle with the right amount of spells and followers in my decks and the cost distribution. Would be nice to see a expert doing one.
Right now I'm playing with a Braum/ Poros deck that I made on my own. It's a lot of fun in silver rank but I know it needs to be improved if I want to reach gold.
I think that the best teacher is meta. Even Mogwai can't tell you how too deckbuild with 100% efficiency. You just need to lose and analyse the losses, find weak parts of the deck and fix them if you can. The thing about our fake brazilian bOi is that he plays a lot and has many time to find those weak spots of the deck. So, the answer to your question is practice
guys, to me it seems a bit odd to have a deck creation guide? like what do you expect him to tell you? Deck ideas?
There are a ton of decks floating around on youtube, mobalytics, twitch so I suggest you check them out and learn, gain experience by watching videos or playing with the deck. That's how you improve at the game.
Glad to see phantom prankster back, easily one of my favorite cards in the game
I really appreciate that you also show losses. It gives a well rounded view of the strengths and weaknesses of your decks.
Thanks! :)
I actually brainstormed the idea of combining hecraim, and those that endure as a win condition. You added a ton more then I imagined! Definitely stealing this deck.
Your not the only one who stole his deck. XD
hercraim with zed
yeah, pilfered goods just feel awful to play vs. You can't just expect them to have any card from your deck and play around it because what are the chances. slow decks feel bad where you just get robbed of the resources that you were wanting to top deck are just sitting in your opponent's hand. it screws up the guarantee and ratio of actually getting what you need to draw because that's why it's in your deck. It's one o the very ew things hearthstone did a tad better because as least there they got a copy of the card in most cases. It's one of the reasons I prefer playing aggro currently tho because they can't use extra resources when they're dead. Anyway great gameplay as usual Mogwai and gl man :)
This is why I've been saying that drawing from your enemy deck is a very broken mechanic that I wish they didn't add to this game. In a competitive card game, you try to guess the cards your opponent has in their deck, and what they might have in hand based on what they play, but when they draw from your deck, it's random for you and for them,and any strategy goes out the window... I think a way to fix it is if you could see the cards your enemy draws from your deck
Yes, i agree with this idea, hope they can see this feedback and update in next patch
I hate this mechanic so much that I can't even describe...
You either see the card or they change it to "Draw a copy of a card from your opponents deck." That way you know what they got on your next draw.
@@enerjack_ the second option hurts mill decks, I don't think it's possible to make this change
Is not random (you usually know your deck )
Me: Spends most of my time since the release trying to figure out how to make Maokai Ephemeral cause I know that shit will be amazing
Mogwai: Don't worry bro, I got you
Edit: for real though I knew this would be a fun and strong archetype and I love your content man. Your love of the off-meta picks is constantly getting me excited to try new things in this game
Yep, I was trying a Maokai Nautilus since the begining cause I loved toss, but was struggling so much with early game decks. Since his decklist, that I made 3 adaptations, I've climbing so much, current in Diamond, and just love to play against aggros now!
He is indeed a beast jn deck building
@@AndreNGropo can you please give me some tips to deal with aggro decks? Currently B2 now struggling a bit bcs of these aggro decks... And btw i only have one complete deck, Mogwai's Yasuo/Kat deck.
@@DineudesCA With Maokai/Naut against aggro, your main concern is to make a late game happen, if it does its GG, so you mulligan everything that is not a chump blocker or a heal effect. Also, Maokai is a high priority card for its sapling is a blocker and a challenger. You trade and control everything you can. Around turn 7 you will see yourself with enough health and cards to just go deep and win.
The Key is get to turn 6 controlling the board and don't even worry about tossing or going deep, is about surviving.
Once yourealize you dont need many sea monsters to win games, it gets easier to play with the deck.
AndreNGropo you have decklist for that deck?
I'm actually laughing so hard right now. I only started playing runeterra about a week ago and started watching your vids soon after. I was theory crafting in my head what I wanted to play and this was literally the exact same deck idea I came up with. Of course I don't actually have the cards yet and I am actual garbage at deck building so I am so happy you're covering this super unique deck concept.
30:14 I feel you Mogwai, the other day some guy used sleight of hand to steal my noxian guillotine (which also was a 1-of) and then used it to kill all of my units which were wounded, tbh I could've played it on one of my units to make it fleeting since he didn't have mana that turn to use though I didnt't realise in time which made me even more pissed
I got my angry woman stolen in expidition this way and it was the only way he was able to stay in the game. Super annoying imo
every single steal card should be get nerf to +1 mana. Its absurdly strong effect when decks get more competitive.
I missed Hecarim decks... He used to be my main when ephemeral midrange was a thing, thanks a lot for bringing he back!
Same man...Now this champless Noxus-PnZ aggro is polluting the ladder smh
Hey Mogwai, I just started playing LoR this week and your videos have been a big help and are very entertaining, so thanks a lot!
I tried this deck and it just seems too slow and vulnerable. It seems like it works only against equally slow decks, like the Ezreal deck in the first match in the video.
The second match was some BS haha, I sympathize. Although in general I don't think that the stealing mechanic has not reached critical mass yet and isn't a problem. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up liking a deck that steals cards, because it keeps the experience fresh and thriling for vets like you.
The third match in the video, as you pointed out, swung to your favor when the opponent didn't block your first Hecarim attack because of their greedy Elmheart play.
The fourth match was my favorite and was very exciting, but as you also pointed out, if the opponent had any way to protect or buff Fiora that would have been game over. Drawing the second Neverglade Collector was also a huge break for you there.
You are right that Neverglade Collector is the MVP of this deck. However, until you set up your Neverglade engine this deck is just too passive. You rarely threaten the enemy with attacks, and that allows them to save their spells or challengers for Neverglade and other crucial cards. Same goes when you drop Hecarim.
Its main removal is Grasp of the Undying, but because of its cost it's hard to time it because of the many ways it can be countered. Black Spear does work, but it won't always be active.
I'm taking a break from my first deck, a Nautilus deck, because it's weak against Elusives. But this is way worse against those. It's also suicide against Fiora-focused decks, because she'll feast on your Prankster, Neverglade and even Maokai. I didn't encounter a Frostbite deck in my run but I imagine this is fodder for that too. It also dies to Hecarim/Maokai mirrors that run Ledros because you can't outrace their damage.
Overall I think this deck is suited for a slow meta, which isn't the case right now, at least in my server and rank.
just wait until all player figure out how unhealthy that card is and start abusing it
plunder goods is bs
imagine dying to your own win condition lol
Like the reduce your opponents nexus health to 0 win condition? That happens pretty often.
I know you mean the milling, but it doesn't make sense to generalize that statement.
@@danielkatona8778 he means "they who endure". The win cons of this deck are Heca, milling and they who endure + atrocity.
@@quetas83 Oh, sorry.
ur name goes through the other side of my screen
@@danielkatona8778 A win condition in a deck are the important cards that will let you win. They're 2-4 cards that the rest of the deck are built around. You aren't planning to win the game with a black spear, avaorsan sentry, or a glimpse beyond, but if you pull a strong they who endure, that's a card that can single handedly win you a game. He lost to a 13 drop they who endure, which is one of his own win conditions.
I really like your effort put in the beggining, to explain, how this deck will work.
Man, everytime I want to see something interesting and different in this game, I just look for your videos. You're just amazing, congrats
Was really looking forward to Neverglade Collector, first time I saw the card I thought it was pretty insane to just drain from the enemy nexus, that sounded cool. And I was thinking about a maokai collector and maybe snapvine deck but just haven’t gotten to making it, but this will give me a lot of inspiration and thoughts when making my own version. Currently just finished making a TF steal opponents deck with riptide as a finisher that splashes piltover for boomcrew and rummage to discard opponent cards I don’t want. Stole so many good cards so much fun
28:40 that they who endure stolen wow 😂 I’ve done better though, I played against kinkou elusive the other day, stole his twice buffed kinkou life blade, his windfriar hatchling, 2 shadow assassins, 1 will of Ionia from his deck, and 1 will of Ionia from his hand. That match felt goooooddd. In an expedition run that gave me the idea for this deck, I stole unyielding spirits from a fiora deck , and used it on my twisted fate 🙃
Can't belive i tried this combo with my friend just a few hours ago, and now i see my favorite LoR MAN with the same concept xD
I feel onored to be in the same wave even if i came with this solution cause i love the SHARK ♡
KEEP THE GOOD WORK MOgway^^
Man I'm so excited when I start watching each one of your videos, such great content! I hope you keep up the good work for a while because I love it!
Really loving your content and decks. Really helps keep the game fresh for me!
You're great bro, and you are right to be proud about it. I love your gameplay and your ideas, and watching you is just super fun and entertaining. I get inspired by your decks and the way you play the game that i actually start getting better myself too. Love you, and keep at it! Btw i was trying to learn Twisted Fate and your latest TF video helped me out really good while i was trying to theorycraft by myself, wanna see TF again soon so im looking forward for it. TF pls.
Neverglade Collector is crazy in Expedition. I recently got six consecutive wins using a totally janky deck I'd thrown together, just because it had two neverglade collectors in it.
I would have gotten a 7 win streak but then decided to sacrifice that same card in this video to overgrown snapvine since I'm cautious at my enemy stealing it.
I am really grateful for all yt videos you created, you inspired me with runeterra and improve my skills in it ;) . I am watching your videos since first runeterra video on yt! I think that's kinda went to my rutine
i was waiting for this , this was the first thing i though of when maokai came out , but i suck at deck building ,thank you mogwai
This deck is awesome. I got drunk as hell and spent two wildcards on Maokai in my stupor, so I was desperately looking for ideas for a deck with him. Will definitely try this out and see how it stacks up with what I’m running now. Thanks for the great video!
The decks that come out of your head dude. You may make better or worse decks, but they're never boring.
34:42 lmao I can't believe you just realized
Update: I'm having hard time trying to win with this deck but I finally did against spider aggro, I used 2 atrocity to save my butt at 1 health lol
I have spent the first week of the release trying to build around Maokai and Neverglade Collector without much success at that time.
I definitively going to give this a test as I almost gave up :)
37:43 "Whatever is in my hand"
That's someone's soul lol
I was thinking about that champion combination and I’m so happy you took the guess work out of the deck. I really enjoy your videos (:
Man, i was trying to build this archetype for a week now, and i failed miserably, because i suck at deck building. Ty for this video!
If i see the Intro I always miss the nice sound of the card that Tf throws.
the satisfying thwack of the gold card
@@warrentang7459 that's the most satisfying animation in game
Great showcase, love watching your content. Was trying your decks and I'm almost never having games like your first, for example. For most of the time opponents instantly have answers and shut down these types of combos, or they get extremely unlucky in maybe 1 of 20 games. This all looks flashy and cool, but seems to work pretty rarely.
Finally a decent answer the 0 IQ burn aggro that has been the bane of my existence. Tried it out with a bit of modifications (added Thresh cause of the units dying synergy to pull out Mao or Heca) and its super fun! Thanks a lot
I despise that "plunder draw two" card so much, it's even more annoying than stand alone rally bs. I got killed by my own ledros today, it simply sucks when you have bad top decks because the oponent randomly took your best cards.
It's also inherently bad design for both card and video games, because by not knowing what they've stolen from you AND by the effects being burst speed, you have no real way of playing around them and you've lost valuable resources to something completely uninteractive. Say what you will about Hearthstone, at least its thief cards only add copies of the opponents cards to your hand instead of outright stealing them.
I feel you so bad on this. My friend plays a swain gangplank deck with pilfered goods and it’s so annoying.
I agree so much on this. The opponent wins with your winning condition even if his hand is shit in that game. Which defeats the purpose of interaction phase riot is commending themselves so much about. Riot needs to fix this before it gets too out of hand and
lose them players.
the people commenting about "muh burst speed card draw" are smooth brains. That being said, the card is fucking ridiculous. It's the cheapest card draw in the game for what it does, has a ton of synergy with the potential to actually play the cards with more strength than the actual owner could, and the feeling of losing because your opponent topdecked your own win condition is absolutely awful.
Sounds like you just got a taste of ledros death but because you play him in your deck it was the pilfered goods fault.
I love your videos!! I used to just play LoR on the offhand but your videos really got me into the game. I watch ur videos before I sleep every night, it's like a ritual haha
Welcome to the Mogwai sleep club
Love ephemural decks. Been the main deck ive played since start of beta. Question though, why is soul shepard not included in this sort of deck. Just curious what the reasoning for leaving it out is.
Oh come ooon, here I was running the hecarim-zed deck and thinking "zed is becoming kind of a liability in this deck, maybe I should try maokai to enable the ephemerals". Also me: Wow, blighted caretaker is gonna be pretty good in this deck. 2 days lates this video comes out, GET OUT OF MY HEAD LOL. Seriously though you're the one who got me into runeterra videos so seeing this is pretty cool. I'm still using Ionia as a splash for spells though hahah keep up with the nice decks man
Men don't know when if you used that deck on a stream or not, but today a faced 2 of those with a shitty demacia/ionia deck made in like 3 mins just for doing the quest, won both games, maybe they played it wrongly or it's really weak against fast, low cost cards decks. And i really mean it, my deck's higher cost was 3 because the quest was "play demacia or ionia units", so i just grabbed the cheapest i could that could somehow work and went ahead to do it asap xD
Hi Mogwai just a little message to say thanks you for you re content from all french community ! Merci beaucoup !
Thank you for this! I asked you yesterday about my ephemerals deck and this looks much more potent! Sadly don't have a maokai for it. I'll try subbing him with kalista though I'm not sure how good that will be. Thanks! Lovely to see shark chariot love ;)
34:38 i was so close to shouting at my screen xd
I was
Yeah, chat was spamming lethal, thats why he saw it, otherwise there is a chance he would've missed it
Did it matter they die end of turn
Neverglade is my favorite card now! I don't have much champions yet so I've been playing a champless deck with him. My favorite combo is:
Neverglade + Hapless + Snapvine then Chronicler the Hapless
Does 5 damage to nexus, heals your nexus for 5 then adds multiple 4|3 units on the board
Mogwai this deck is awesome I am currently using it but I added 3 deadbloom wanderer for that extra lifesteal and toss to level maokai alot quicker. Thanks dude your a inspiration to the lor community
Sweet deck man! That stolen loss in the 2nd game was something else.
Hi Megamogwai. I have spent 3 days doing this deck. It takes me a while as I am not all here and it is tough to do sometimes. But I know that you like Yasuo. I made this deck for him if you like to try out.
Here is the list.
Yasuo x3
Swain x2
Steel Tempest x3
Blade's Edge x3
Arachnoid Sentry x3
Legion General x1
Intimidating Roar x2
The Leviathan x2
Fae Bladetwirler x3
Legion Saboteur x3
Concussive Palm x2
Ravenous Flock x3
Minotaur Reckoner x1
Dragon's Rage x2
Shadow Assassin x2
Retreat x3
Deny x2
Draw power in Retreat combo with Shadow Assassin in the Return. Dragon's Rage to Finish games or recall the enemies threat. A lot of ping nexus potential and stunning. A pretty good deck that supports both Yasuo and Swain. Enjoy! 🤗
Love the content mogwai, keep it up 🙂 You have written Vlad off but try a steffen, Vlad, stormclaw ursine deck... It's so much fun, transfusion shananigans!! It beats this deck quite consistently
I find Neverglade collector interaction with Maokai really sad instead of him being bored.
It's like Maokai is angry at him but the way he said "What was I supposed to do?" it's like he's forced to do something he didn't want, like "I have no other choice, I had to". sad :'(
Also thank you for showing your wins and losses mad respect
Yo I literally brought up this concept on your reaction to the reveal but no body said anything and even you didn't bring it up at the time. Excited to see it.
I only started playing LoR this week after leaving Magic about the same time Mogs did, I've noticed that this ephemeral arcetype has a kind of hidden advantage over others due to the six unit limit, you can attack with six and block with six but they don't have to be the same six. With other decks in the little I've played so far, having space for your synergy pieces and enough fodder units to block and attack with has sometimes been a choke point but summoning a bunch of ephemeral buddies in the red zone without it taking up your core six units is pretty neat.
It's kind of the heart of Runeterra, I feel like this game would be way easier if there wasn't a board limit. You'd just have people summoning stuff galore, honestly. The limit means you can't just have tons of fodder while you protect your combo pieces or w/e, and it feels good to force your opponent to use important cards to block.
I've been testing the deck and the curve is weird.
Your turn 4/5 is a toss up between Maokai, and Collector. The Prankster is a win-more since it bottlenecks the curve at 3 doing nothing on the turn it drops.
The Shark though is a bomb here. It's a recurring Phoenix for cheaps. I'm testing Oblivious Islander to adjust the curve and it works well with Shark, Cursed Keeper and Blighted Caretaker.
Draven/Jinx/Scout matchups are difficult. Competitive idk
Update guys:
I've found a good synergy using Katarina and Maokai
Abusing Katarina's rally, giving all Saplings a purpose in each of the turns. I hope Mogwai can brew it soon, I wanted to share it to Mog but I don't have twitch nor twitter. Srylol
@@SincerityJoy Pretty nifty idea. I might try this out when I have Kata.
@@SincerityJoy If you don't mind me asking, what did you dropped in the deck to add Katarina & Oblivious Islander to make them work along the rest of the deck? Thanks in advance!
Hi Mog, you're my favourite streamer/LOR Streamer! Please keep making heaps of videos
Interesting take on Maokai my dude. At some point I'd love to see your take on an Unyielding Spirit Control deck - I've tried it with Ashe/Fiora and it's a lot better than expected.
Swim: Ehh prankster burn's kinda a meme. Use it for surprise factor
Community: Oh yeah totally agree low tier 2
Mogwai: but did you know Maokai?
Ladder next day: Prankster, prankster, prankster, prankster, elusive burn, prankster, prankster, poros
Loving the content Mogwai!!! Keep it up!
I just took a page from your book and built a championless deck. Mine however bridges Piltover and Bilgewater and the key figure is Professor Yip, along with some really fun one drops including butcher, prowling cutthroat, astute acedemic who already benefits from card draw and a host of other fun tool box units brought forth by the spells like jail break and units like Petty Officer and my favorite scout Island Navigator. The rest of my game centers around card draw both mine and my opponent's cards and the dreaded removal/face smacking cards. It is one Hell of an irreverent and fun deck, because though it has has a key strategy in superbuffing 1 drops when they hit the field it really does turn out to be an all around toolbox deck between stealing from your opponent and the randomness of the one drops. I also wanted to test Island Navigator to see if she'd actually drop a Fizz or Teemo in a deck not running any champions with all 6 slots freed up, she hasn't yet, but I'll keep going with it.
43:30 I think you win here even without the atrocity. Because his life total reaches 0 before Fiora killing 4 minions.
You never know with riots coding. Tbh I’m pretty sure Fioras ult wins before drain does.
@@pancakepuppy5880 You are right, that depends on how they coded it. But @setshuei logic is ideally what should have happened: fiora kills the first two and they ping 2 damage, game over.
By seeing the gameplay, whenever fiora effects procs, the enemy takes 1 damage, so probably the game was won anyway, but, for example, if the enemy had 4 health, the fiora would win first
Yes that was my thought process exactly, though it could also be considered a draw since it happens on the same instance but i doubt it.
I was just talking about this deck concept with a friend who's wanting to do sea monsters. I don't think maokais place is there. I wanted to see maokai in ephemeral or "death matters" style decks with hecarim or maybe Lucien. Thanks for sharing this!
Maokai actually provides great support in sea monster decks because he enables deep super easily. You don’t play him for the milling, just to toss and the little saplings are a nice addition to stabilise the board to give you time to play Nautilus.
34:50 the face dude!!! GG!!!
The deck is better than I expected, even made a comeback against double grizzled ranger with 7 hp.
I was trying to make similar ephemeraldeck with Thresh and Hecarim but it didn't work out. I'm glad that you made it do so.
You are my favourite "Timmy/Johnny" streamer
28:30 this is Nilfgard all over again PepeHands... nice wincondition you got there.
35:09 And thus, the birth of "What the hell! Miguel"
Ah finally I see someone else play ephemeral collector. The combo is insane :D
I made a deck like this recently except it does lean more into the toss and but strictly with deathbloom wanderer, Thorny toad for life sustain and scavenge as the only 3 of from bilgewater for card draw. Nuking their deck and then overwhelming them with hecarim is so addicting.
The lore behind Maokai and the Neverglade collector is actually interesting XD
That prediction is broken man 😂😂 43:43
Hecarim is such a powerful finisher, I love that guy
Do you think maybe shadow Isles needs a nerf? It's my favorite region, but they seem to be good at everything - you have early burst with the combo you mentioned, you got card draw with glimpse, you a lot of removal and healing, and slap 3 endures in there and you have a late game beast. Maybe at least make the 4/4 a 4/3?
Swim in a previous video.
You can't use Collector and Prankster in the same deck.
Mogwai: Hold my Prankster
Have been waiting for someone to design a deck like this.... great job Mogwai!
Oh dude! I just subbed. But a heads up though dude. Make sure they don't get to you. Even as randoms. They like to attack. That is their nature. With that, you are good dude. 😋
That Neverglad Collector though!
Love the deck was just thinking of something similar earlier today but you executed it perfectly, I keep wanting to get the soul maiden to work in a deck like this but she just feels so mehhh
Match summary:
Maokai: You accepted what became of us!!!
Neverglade Collector: What was I suppose to do?
I am a simple man, Mogwai uploads a viedo, I throw a like.
Just came back to your videos, love your content and energy. Keep it up, man!
Dude, since the start of the expansion i tried to create this deck, but I also used Zed as an early game
What a spicy Intro ! Hell yeah 😎
Hope mogwai see this.
But i experimented a deck with prankster and neverglade pairing with Fiora and unyielding will. And a lot of buff spells and 1 mana cost followers. And for late game you have a commander ledros in deck. I just thought of that deck but its some times hard when it comes especially will of Iona.
it was really funny how the enemy just pulled out his Endure lmao
That last match against flora/garen was fun to watch
I actually have a question in your last game when your opponent used judgement could u have won without the atrocity when u are draining 1 from the enemy nexus while his judgement killed one unit after another.
So does judgement kill all at once or one after another? enabling fiora a instant win or a win after 4 of ur units dying in a row
i hope u understand what i mean im from germany so it could be hard to understand :/
It'll kill all enemies at once so auto win for fiora :)
@@CPM94 ohh ok thx :D
He would win anyway, if you look after the judgement is done, the caretaker is doing damage for every unit killed while fiora marks the nexus, so the opponent would die before Fiora killed 4.
@@Vicesplay that means judgement doesnt kill all at the same time but in a row so after the first 2 kills the enemy pretty much killed himself with judgement ?
@@unseenblade8291 Yes, that's how it works
What a nice deck. What a nice vid.
Honestly I love what the LoR team has been doing so far, but the mechanic of drawing from the opponents deck has to go.
It is the most frustrating thing to see a card that was in your deck ruin the game for you. The worst part about it is that it isn't even a good mechanic in terms of effectivness. It adds a huge variance to the games it is present in.
I'm still waiting for that Kayle with 5 Levels.
Mark my words, stealing cards is a TOXIC mechanic, I saw it in other ccgs, and I HATE IT back then, and I HATE IT right now.
Mogwai : i gotta think 3 step ahead what opponent’s deck will do
Opponent : 1 health
Mogwai : Ohhhhhhhhhhh
I've been trying to build a Hecarim deck but I completely forgot about they who endure lol thanks mogwai
Ive tried this deck. Maokai actually levels up without even trying
41:07 thought I'd learn how to play vs Fiora as "they who endure" deck, but you just got lucky =) Enemy did not have "single combat" or "deny" (and that's 6 cards we didn't see on turn 7)
Yeah, luck is a crucial factor of this game, I play Yasuo deck and in some match I have 6 cards with 6 6 7 7 9 9 costs in hand at the round 6 vs burn deck T__T
@@prathakpaisanwatcharakit6202 *Draven laughs in burn*
Thanks for a really good video, excited to play heca again :)
The second game is a perfect example for the "plunder" mechanic being uterly broken and un-fun. With drawing from you opponent's deck you eliminate one mayor weakness from the aggro decks; poor scaling into the late game. If you are up against a control deck and you get to steal "They who endure" or hard removal like vengeance you get tools to transition towards a decent or even perfect late game. I'm a bit biased to be honest though, I mainly play control or midrange and don't like aggro. Still, other card games have these mechanics to but in MTG, these effects are expensive and sub-optimal because you have the colour system and with Hearthstone you make random copies so your opponent doesn't lose cards. There should be some restrictions implemented to make the "plunder" mechanic more balanced.
Mogwai, I was thinking, maybe try a plunder maokai deck. Like with bilgewater and shadow isles, you proc maokai level up quickly and then you just draw all the opponents cards with plunder. Will that work?
Me at 34:38, when I don't know what the newer cards are called by name yet: USE THE DAMN CAAAARD
Sir, Maokai (and TF) is the best Champion ever. I know you recently uploaded a mill Maokai deck but could you give an optimal Neverglade one?
Added to the list of "decks that mogwai conviced me to try"
i actually belive that the "take a card from your oponent deck" mechanic shoul be nerfed a lot. Like +1 mana to each of those cards. In theory is a not so well mechanic because you get "not sinergy cards" but in reality if you play aggro decks you are just getting more options for late game.
In 23:35
Could you have played the butcher to take less damage? Or am I wrong? Hugs from Brazil anyway!
Hecarim is still lowkey pretty good, I run him alongside Zed and Kallista. I still don't have any of the new SI cards though.
EDIT: I absolute DESPISE the draw from opponent mechanic, it's beyond annoying and obnoxious AF. If it was draw a COPY of a card from your opponent that'd be fine, that's actually kinda cool. But it's basically super mill and just one of my most hated mechanics in card games, period (See: Agent of Treachery MTG)