Cephalopod’s Lux Poppy Deck Guide
Lux/Poppy is the strongest deck in the game right now.
As of writing, I’m 29-2 in tournaments with the deck since coming up with it a month ago.
The Demacia + Bandle City pairing unlocks Curious Shellfolk more effectively than any other deck in large part due to Radiant Guardian absolving the key weakness of Bandle City having no healing options.
Combine that with Lux and Minimorph, and you’re left with an endlessly resourceful, if difficult to pilot, pile of 40 bombs that never goes down without a fight.
Deck Code: CEBQQBIKAECCQKJRUYA26AN4AEAQGAAOAIAQADZKAMAQCAAJAECQURIBAIAACAIBAEAAM
[See Lux Shellfolk deck details]
General Strategy
The deck mainly wins by addressing the opponent’s threats then answering with a potent counterattack.
Lux on 5 into minimorph on 6 is enough to win a surprising number of games. Turn 6 and 7 tempo swings are when this deck really works its magic, so it’s perfectly okay to play on the defensive until then.
Holding your pranks and trinket trades until Shellfolk drops is usually best practice, because even if your hand doesn’t have a Lux or Shellfolk to form a concrete plan around, turtling up is very much a strength of the deck.
The dual pressure of Brightsteel Protector and Lux barriers to force open attacks synergizes with Radiant Guardian’s desire to be open-attacked. Combined, they create a minefield for the opponent to navigate, whether or not you even have the relevant cards in hand.
General Mulligan
In the general case, keep Conchologist, Telescope, and literally nothing else. Don’t be afraid to full mull.
The plan is to bank 2 mana early with Telescope and Conchologist plays in anticipation of a Lecturing Yordle or a Sharpsight defense of your Lux/Shellfolk engine.
This deck wins games with turn 6-7 tempo swings using Lux and Shellfolk, but living until those key turns is the sole focus of your mulligan.
If you already have Conch or Scope you can keep Lux depending on the matchup. However, keeping Poppy, Shellfolk, or Otterpus is almost never the correct line.
Specific Matchup Notes
Against Sion
Mulligan
No changes from the default, keep Lux if you already have a good early defense.
Pilot
Either Lux or Shellfolk will do, but make sure you’re prepared for Sion when he comes. Radiant actually blocks 10 damage, so you’re still fine if they find Sion before you find Minimorph.
Against GP/Sej (Plunder)
Mulligan
Keep Brightsteel Protector, and Sharpsight + Pokey Stick if you have a 2 drop.
Pilot
Look to deny free plunder procs early, but that’s easy stuff everyone knows. The real trick to this matchup is to ignore Sejuani. She can’t kill you and thus doesn’t matter. You typically don’t actually have enough Minimorphs and Lux lasers to immediately deal with every threat they present, so focus on removing leveled Gankplanks and Dreadways.
Against Lee
Mulligan
Hard mull for Minimorph. They have no counterplay to it and have a 0% chance to win if you match each Lee with a Minimorph.
Pilot
Removing Zoe is key since leveled Zoe is their only way to proceed with no Lee. Know that the first two to three tries at removing her are gonna get stopped and that stopping her death costs a spell.
If possible, timing your removal for when they’ve already played two spells in a turn is best.
Against Lurk
Mulligan
Keep Brightsteel Protector and Lux.
Pilot
Know beforehand that the game is gonna go way long. You have to run them all the way out of cards to win, which means you’re gonna have to face down about 5 or 6 combined copies of Rek’Sai, Pyke, and Jaull fish.
It’s doable, you just have to think ahead and don’t compromise your ability to defend against a Jaull Fish play.
Against Darkness
Mulligan
Keep Lux, Pokey Stick, Minimorph, and Lecturing Yordle if you have a 2 drop.
Pilot
Both you and your opponent are fully capable of removing any sort of threats the other presents, but a single unchecked champion is enough to win the game on its own. They usually just slam Veigar on 4, so hold up the requisite mana for Minimorph on that turn.
As far as actually winning, don’t hold back on playing threats into danger. Between Lux, Poppy, Shellfolk, and Lecturing, running them out of answers is usually a viable strategy for this matchup.
Against Poppy/Ziggs and other aggro decks
Mulligan
Keep Radiant Guardian and Pokey Stick.
Pilot
Aggro matchups mostly just boil down to a Radiant check on turn 5 or 6. Your units are so small that any attack they make is guaranteed to kill at least something, so actually having the Radiant is a must. That’s why I play 3x even though you don’t use Radiant to its full potential vs most decks.
Let’s Talk About Poppy
Poppy is a superlatively powerful card, but in this deck, she takes the role of a humble tertiary win-con, often as a follow-up to a Shellfolk power turn. She helps slam the door on opponents who lose control of the board, while also happening to have a 6 mana hard removal champ spell.
Lux/Poppy out scales every meta deck with extremely few exceptions. Outside of matchups such as Bandle Tree, you can afford to play passively and answer threats as they emerge.
Particularly against matchups like Sion, Poppy’s utility is severely limited. You don’t often have more than one or two units early on, and she’s able to be dealt with in multiple ways that leave you behind on tempo.
Of course, if you have no better play slamming Poppy on curve isn’t bad, but there are much stronger plays to be made and I’d rather mulligan for those.
Mulligan Puzzles
Here are a few puzzles to test your mulligan knowledge. Think about what you’d keep or mull and then check the answers at the end of this article!
#1 – Evens vs Zed Rally
#2 – Odds vs Lee Sin
#3 – Odds vs GP/Sej
Other Versions of Lux Poppy
Shockingly, my 40 isn’t the only way to play Lux/Poppy! The archetype makes use of tons of general-purpose Bandle City cards, and thus can be taken in a bunch of different directions.
In general, Lux/Poppy decks either play harder for Poppy and cut the Shellfolk package like Shadawx’s list, or play for Lux and Shellfolk like mine.
However, if you’re making your own Lux/Poppy decklist here are the core cards I would never cut:
And here are some alternative versions from some other players:
Shadawx
Deck Code: CEBQMBIKAECCS5FGAGXQCAIDAAHAEAIAAYVAGAYBAAFQ6HICAUFDCRIBAQAAEAIBAEACS
[See Shadawx Lux Poppy deck details]
Random7
Deck Code: CEBQOBIKAQUCSMNGAGXQDPABAEBQADQCAEAA6KQDAEAQABQCAUFACRIBAIAACAICAEAASCY
[See Random7 Lux Poppy deck details]
Xiko Periko
Deck Code: CEBQMBIKAQUCSMLUV4AQCAYABYBQCAAPDIVAGAIBAAZACAQAAEBQKCQBDK6ACAA
[See Xiko Periko Lux Poppy deck details]
My Puzzle Answers
#1 Mull away Otterpus only
#2 Full mull for Minimorph
#3 Full mull, but could consider keeping Pokey
For more decks, head to the Deck Library! To build your own, head to the Deck Builder.
