6 Rise of the Underworlds Decks to Try During Launch Week
We trekked through the vast Shuriman- the wide Ionian-, look we lived through the Azir/Irelia meta and Rise of the Underworlds has finally arrived.
I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and while we’re going into completely uncharted territory together that’s always been my favorite time.
Today I’ll be bringing you a bunch of new untested deck concepts ranging from meme to dream to everywhere in between to try and build on as the new meta coalesces.
We’ll be starting with an old boogeyman, once nerfed, now here to potentially mooo its way to victory once again.
1. Alternate Elnuks
Deck Code: CEDAGAYEAUGRCAYEAQGA2EACAECCMJYBAQAQKAQBAEIRWAIDAEDAEAIEAQFACAIEAEAA
[See Alternate Elnuks deck details]
This deck is looking at three disparate ideas and asking if we can squish them all together and get something remarkably powerful.
Step one is the Elnuks of course, here to swarm the board with stats come turn five and stampeded all over your poor opponent.
Step two is the Tri-beam/Discard synergies of Draven/Ezreal showing up for a cameo appearance. If we’re just going to be making a bunch of random stat-sticks then finding ways to create tempo so they can bust through is going to be at a premium. Few cards tempo better than Tri-beam Improbulator.
Step three is my old personal favorite of Concurrent Timelines/Trundle/Iterative Improvement dropping giant 0 mana threats on the board on turn eight.
Timelines doesn’t want to be played early here, as it will actually often downgrade our early curve, but it’s great with Trundle and Troop of Elnuks, so look to drop it around turn five or so. Thus only two copies of the card.
Lissandra is just here to be a solid three drop to fuel Tri-Beam and occasionally hit level two. She’ll also make some nice inevitability if the game goes long though. Bonus points if you Iterative Improvement your Troop of Elnuks to get another set of large friends clogging the board.
2. Parallel Destruction
Deck Code: CECAIBAHAEOCONQEAQCACAQMCABQCBABEY2ACAYEAUAQEBAHFFSAA
[See Parallel Destruction deck details]
Sometimes you’ve just got to blow some shite up. In this case that would be your opponent’s entire side of the board. Between a deck full of Predicts and Draw, Time Bombs, and Fallen Feline’s crystals, keeping a board state is going to be a massive slog for your opponent.
This deck is just set up to be an absolute grind-em-out of an aggressive midrange deck and will get quickly out of control with either of your champions finding their level-up condition.
Not to mention the dream scenario of somehow hitting both. Just keep rallying and blowing up the board every turn while simultaneously hitting face for burn damage. That’s an awful lot to ask for anyone to answer.
3. Lulu/Shen
Deck Code: CEDAIAIABEFRKHICAEBBGIABAIAAEAIDAAHAEAYCAIFACBAAB4BAEAIAEUVQCBAAAIAQCAQAA4
[See Lulu/Shen deck details]
This one is a slight variation on an old favorite, but I don’t think the power of Swiftwing Flight in this archetype can be overstated. It does literally every single thing this deck wants to do all at once wrapped up in one card.
It’s a Challenger, so your support cards can get their value. It’s a support card for other Challengers, so they can get their tempo. It even gives you some straight value as it comes down to stopping a notoriously easy to gas out deck from being card dead.
Add that to a suite of dangerous combat tricks and four Rally effects to pour on the aggression and I would not be surprised to see this heavily tempo-oriented deck have another chance to shine.
4. Dreadros
Deck Code: CECQCAYFCABQEBQEEYWQCAYGBAAQCBJRAECAMDQCAUBAMAQ2DUQDUAYBAUAR2NICAEBQKBQCAECQ6II
[See Dreadros deck details]
I know y’all weren’t about to forget about Shady. With Make it Rain un-nerfed and the new keg-power tool of Line ‘Em Up here to party this seems like a great time for Go Hard to bring it on back.
Yes, putting these cards into our deck does reduce the effectiveness of Zap at hitting Go Hard. The point is that at this point this is less all-in on that concept though and more of a solid Midrange/Control pile.
And with all the tools we’ve got going for us, it looks like it may be able to that job pretty well. With all the crazy aggression that will be coming down the pipeline from the Lurkers, I would be remiss not to drop some ways to protect ourselves.
5. Lurk
Deck Code: CEBQGBAGAECQ6BQEA4JUCRCKKBTQCAQGEYBAEBAGAIDAGBAHGZIWIAA
[See Lurk deck details]
Speaking of incredible aggression and tempo this is my first take on an aggressive Lurk style archetype. It definitely isn’t the absolute lowest to the ground you can find.
We’re eschewing some of the smaller Lurkers for tempo, but when everyone else is being aggressive going just a touch slower is often the way to break those mirrors.
While we do have some powerful openings here we also have a pretty impressive amount of interactive tempo with Vulnerable triggers, Pyke, and The List. Back that up with some card draw and you have a powerful midrange gameplan to go with the default aggro plan of Lurk.
Some of the most powerful decks in the game have been those that can work along more than one axis of power. I won’t claim this is anything near the most optimized list, but it’s an interesting place to start, and I look forward to seeing different variations on the Lurk archetypes grow and flourish
6. Supportal Combat
Deck Code: CEBQOAYJEMUTAOSRKZOAEBAGAICQCAQGAUAQKAYJCMNTGVCVAA
[See Supportal Combat deck details]
Alright, last on the list for today is definitely a little more on the meme-worthy side of things. Here instead of trying to do any Lurk shenanigans we are simply taking Pyke and pumping him as full of gems and power as we can to attempt to annihilate the enemy board.
Add to that the tiniest bit of Invoke-powered endgame and interaction from Vulnerable triggers and we’ve got what is probably a terribly inconsistent but undeniably fun midrange pile.
Could we just be playing LeeSin/Zoe and would It probably be better? Yes. Would it be nearly as cool as creating a giant Pyke and Penta-killing our opponent’s board out of existence? Not a chance.
Conclusion
All these and so many more archetypes will be coming at us strong in the next few weeks as all the new cards and the huge balance patch give us a brewers paradise.
This is my favorite time in Legends of Runeterra and I can’t wait to see what the community comes up with. Good luck out there everyone, and may your Elnuks always be on top.
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
