5 Off-Meta Beyond the Bandlewood Decks
Our meta is shaping up to be pretty impressively wide, which is great news for your friendly neighborhood deck brewer.
However, when it comes to chaotic swarms of different decks, enough is never enough.
My name is Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and today I’m going to throw five more off-meta brews at you in case, like me, the chaos brings you joy.
Here are the five decks we’ll be covering:
- Frozen Shroom
- Shining Poppy
- Jinxed Timeline
- Bandle Shroom
- Trundle Lines
1. Frozen Shroom
Deck Code: CECAKBIKA4YUKSNGAEAQCBAIAECACCQBAIAQEBADAUFBVJABU4AQGAIBAUDQWAIDAEBACBABBEAA
[See Frozen Shroom deck details]
Set the way-back machine for almost a year ago now and you’ll find old-school Sejuani/Teemo paired with Piltover and Zaun doing some pretty impressive things.
Ballistic Bot and friends meant you had Sejuani leveled very quickly and there was often very little an opponent could do but be swarmed under by Frozen Shroomy goodness.
Today we’ve got a bit of a power level kick with Bandle City in the mix. The main game plan is the same though.
Get in those early beats, set up the leveled Sejuani, and wreck your opponent’s world. This kind of deck is very good into the midrange metagames we’ve been seeing lately and is no slouch against aggro either.
I’ve put my favorite personal touch on this brew as well. There are few more fun ways to win a game than a furious battle.
Whether it’s a wide board, a surprise unblocked unit, an Elusive, or an Overwhelm, that eight-point swing puts in some serious work and is not to be underestimated.
2. Shining Poppy
Deck Code: CEBQKBIKAQUCSMN4AEBACAAJFIAQGAAOAQCAKCQBIWTADLYBAIAQABQPAECAAAQBAIAACAA
[See Shining Poppy deck details]
If you’ve been keeping a close eye on the tournament scene lately you’ll have seen a version of this deck making the rounds in the hands of everyone’s favorite cuttlefish.
I’ll admit to having spiced this one up a bit, but the core concepts are much the same.
You have two disparate victory conditions. Either swarm the board and accidentally win with Poppy or get a Lux/Shellfolk online and watch all of your opponent’s units evaporate into beams of beautiful light.
Yes, yes, I know, it’s just another Shellfolk deck, but it’s a *new* shellfolk deck, and that play pattern is just too fun for me to ignore.
This is another one that will have some problems with the more over-the-top control decks. If your first couple of threats get answered it can be hard to come back.
However, it holds its own against many other threats, even giving Lee Sin and company a run for their money with Minimorphs galore.
3. Jinxed Timeline
Deck Code: CEBQIBAHAE3E6UYDAQCACAQMAMAQIJZIFUBQEBAHDRJAEAIEBU2ACBAEA4AA
[See Jinxed Timeline deck details]
You may have begun noticing a pattern, and so as someone who loves betraying expectations, I’ll go ahead and leave Bandle City completely out of this next one.
The Ekko buff has gone largely unremarked, and while this isn’t going to break any tier lists, it does some pretty impressive and fun things.
Both of your champions will level exceptionally quickly in this deck, and that’s what it’s all about. Your predict will set you up to get them on board, get refilled, and start the engines turning.
While you may never have many cards in hand, because of the predict and draw power it can be very hard to stem the flow of aggression from this deck.
And best of all, you’re a burn deck. With Mystic Shot, Get Excited, Ruinous Path, Jinx’s Rocket, and even Fallen Feline’s Crystal, opponent’s life totals that seem safe will evaporate from double digits in the blink of an eye.
And that’s if Ekko doesn’t just start revive-attacking Waking Sands taking five-point chunks or chumps out of your opponent’s side of the board.
4. Bandle Shroom
Deck Code: CECAGAIEBAMSOAIDAQCQGBIEAIDA4AIFBJCQIBIFBJDJQANEAGTADUIBAECQIIYBAECDIAICAQFAA
[See BandleShroom deck details]
Well, I don’t know if you can exactly call this one a brew or not, as it’s been around in one form or another for quite a while now, but it always seems to get forgotten so I’m bringing it back.
Teemo and friends still do a pretty impressive job of shrooming up the place if you all in on them.
This is another deck that is just a burn deck with lots of extra delicious steps. What can I say, something about that archetype calls to me.
You try to get the little pokes and bits of damage in where you can in the early game, but mostly you are looking for a turn six to seven kill.
I have been burned out, literally from twenty, for a single turn. Corina and Ava are your pay-offs for all the setup the rest of your deck does, and they put in some pretty serious work.
While many of the other brews I’ve put up today have control deck issues, this is just the opposite. You may occasionally struggle against folks who just want to kill you, but up against anything Slow, they will be drowning in shrooms before their game plan can come to fruition.
5. Trundle Lines
Deck Code: CEDQGAIEDMYDIAQEAQDQUAQEAEFA4AIDAQGQCBIEBQBACAIMCQAQGAIGAIAQCAI5AEAQIHYA
[See Trundle Lines deck details]
This one is a bit quirky but does some pretty unreasonable things if you get it rolling.
This is another deck that can quite easily set up a kill on turn seven or eight. Here we plan to be the control deck until then though, while only slightly accelerating our game plan via Catalyst.
The plan is to have Timelines active and then play an Ice Pillar. We’ll get an eight mana unit and all of our mana back.
Then we can either Iterative it and swing with both, or if we are a turn later drop Corina Veraza.
Not many board states can stand up to Trundle and a pair of eight drops or a three to four-point Corina Sweep. This one is a tad on the inconsistent side, but when it goes off it goes off big.
And with the help of a little ramp, it can drop the bomb just before many other top-end decks do, slipping lethal in under their noses.
Conclusion
There will always be more to find and brew and create. The number one rule when it comes to making things better is test, test, and test some more.
That’s the only way new decks and meta-breaking technology get created. Have lots of bad ideas, and then hit them with hammers until the few good ones shine through.
Are these the ones that break it all open? Who knows. Statistically probably not. But they’re one’s that I have seen and have enjoyed playing around with, and I hope you do too.
Until next time, best of luck, and I’ll see you out there on the ladder.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (around 10AM PST basically every day).
WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx around 10AM PST every day
