LoR Deck Guide: Diana Aphelios Nightfall

LoR Deck Guide: Diana Aphelios Nightfall

Hey guys! NicMakesPlays here and today I’m going to go over my new Diana Aphelios Nightfall deck.

It’s really explosive and has a ton of potential so try it out if you like to make a lot of decisions related to Nightfall and Aphelios’s Phase mechanic.

Overall, the goal of this deck is to utilize Aphelios and all of his Moon weapons to generate advantage and answer all your opponent’s threats, while you put on damage with your Nightfall units.

For more Aphelios deck ideas, check out our article 4 Aphelios Deck Recommendations For His Launch Week by WhatAmI.

Deck Code: CEBQCAIFF4EQGCJDHBEVQWOXAHMADWIB3UAQGAYFAMCAMAABAEBQSLY

[See NicMakesPlays Aphelios Diana Nightfall]

The Mulligan Phase

The mulligan phase for this deck is pretty straightforward and will be similar for most matchups.

You’ll always want to mulligan for Lunari Duskbringer or Solari Soldier for early game Nightfall activators and Diana or Aphelios to start taking control of the game with your Champions.

As always with your opening hand, keep in mind whether or not you’ll be attacking on evens or odds.

Card Choices & Key Synergies

Lunari Duskbringing / Solari Soldier

These cards are 1 mana Nightfall activators that allow you to start your turn strong then summon Nightfall units.

Lunari Duskbringer gives you Nightfall activators for later while Solari Soldier’s 3|3 stats due to its Daybreak are great on both offensive and defensive turns.

Crescendum / The Sky Shadows

You can use Crescendum to summon The Sky Shadow from the deck to the field which activates its ability to refill your mana by 2.

This is good because it summons a 3|1 body that allows you to play more cards and phase the next Moon Weapon that turn which is most likely Calibrum.

So with this combo, Aphelios is able to come into play and summon a 3|1 and deal 3 damage to an enemy follower while also completing half of his level up.

This combo is what makes Nightfall so potent with the amount of tempo and card advantage it generates you.

Infernum / Diana

One of the key ways to finish the game is using Infernum to give Leveled Up Diana Overwhelm.

Her leveled up form can easily gain 7+ attack and then Infernum also gives +2|1 as well.

With Diana’s huge attack stat and Challenger, you can easily go for lethal by pulling one of their low health units into combat and finishing off the nexus with the excess damage from Overwhelm.

Stygian Onlooker / Fading Memories

Stygian Onlooker is how you can pack on huge damage when your opponent taps under certain cards such as Avalanche or Withering Wail.

It only costs 1 mana so you can put on the pressure with Aphelios and when they try and when they use their mana to try and deal with him that’s your chance to put a few on the field and push for 8+ damage.

You can use Fading Memories to copy Stygian Onlooker and attack with another, if it goes through it’s essentially 1 mana for 4 damage.

The Fangs / Gifts From Beyond

These two cards give your deck so many options and utility to deal with all kinds of different scenarios.

The Fangs gives you access to Challenger, Elusives, Spellshield, card discounts, Silencing, and Draw to find the right answer to all kinds of situations you are in.

While The Fangs Invoking gives you access to all kinds of answers, Gifts from Beyond also gives you access to summoning a 3|1 from the deck that refills spell mana, 3 damage removal, Overwhelm, Lifesteal, and Stunning.

With all these tools at your disposal, you are able to overcome all kinds of different scenarios vs different matchups you are put in.

Good Matchups (and How to Win Them Consistently)

Aphelios is insanely strong and versatile so I feel this deck does well against most matchups as long as they aren’t a counter matchup.

You can use Crescendum to put on pressure and gain tempo by summoning a unit from the deck that refills spell mana.

This alone puts you ahead of most decks, then you can also use Calibrum to deal 3 to an enemy follower.

Against aggro decks you can gain field control then use Severum to heal all your health back and blow them out of the game.

Against midrange decks, you can keep using Calibrum to kill all their units then apply pressure with your Nightfall units.

Bad Matchups (and How to Give Yourself a Better Chance at Winning)

The hardest matchups with this deck are Anivia and Go Hard.

With their abundance of 1 damage pings and healing, they can really run you out of cards and heal all their health back from the pressure they put on.

The way to win this matchup is to not play too into Withering Wail and keep an eye on their options based on how much mana they have.

Aphelios has 3 health which is good, so you can try and just put on your higher health units like him, Crescent Guardian, and Solari Soldier.

When you have a field of 3 health units and they start to tap under Withering Wail that’s your time to make a huge push with your Stygian Onlookers.

Tech Choices

• Eclipse Dragon

• • This card is an amazing way to refuel against the grindy matchups and make sure you can continue to do well into the late game.

• Atrocity

• • An alternative finisher to Cygnus which is particularly good if you also run Eclipse Dragon since it gives access to higher attack units as well as Celestials and Dragons.

• Glimpse Beyond

• • Helps refuel after big plays or vs removal and makes good use of Ephemeral units. This card is also good at blocking Lifesteal to prevent their healing

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask NicMakesPlays during his streams (usually 6PM-1230AM EST).

Catch NicMakesPlays live at twitch.tv/nicmakesplays 6PM-1230AM EST