How to Play Nasus Viego
Hey guys NicMakesPlays here.
Today I’m going to go over my Nasus Viego deck.
This deck is well-rounded and an incredibly safe choice for ranked ladder.
I’ll be covering the deck’s win conditions, mulligans, matchups, and more.
We’ve covered a ton of other decks so be sure to check out our previous deck guides.
Deck Code: CEBQGAIFBMYDCAYEA43GO6IEAQCQGBBWG4BQEAIFDEUAEBAFCAOQCBAHF4AA
[See NicMakesPlays Viego Nasus deck details]
Win Condition
This deck has a strong early game with the Shadow Isles units + Merciless Hunter and then can transition into its win cons via Viego, Nasus, and Atrocity.
This deck also is extremely consistent at seeing Viego and Nasus due to running 3 Rite of Callings. The expected turn to win the game around turns 7-8 with a leveled Viego, Nasus, or Atrocity.
Mulligans
In this deck, you want to mulligan for a strong early game such as Treasure Seeker, Fading Icon/Cursed Keeper + Butcher. This allows you to start with a strong early game to apply pressure as well as begin leveling your Nasus.
Card Choices & Key Synergies
Cursed Keeper / Fading Icon
Cursed Keeper and Fading Icon are your two drops of the deck. These cards enable combo with Ravenous Butcher, Wings and The Wave, and Rite of Calling for easy tributes.
This allows you to start leveling up Nasus as well as pushing huge damage in the early game.
Treasure Seeker / Merciless Hunter
Treasure Seeker and Merciless Hunter are both strong Shurima units in the early game. Treasure Seeker allows you to start attacking right away to apply pressure on turn 1 while giving you a Waking Sands for later.
You can use Waking Sands to push damage, level Viego or even kill a unit that was given Vulnerable by Merciless Hunter.
Merciless Hunter is a generically good 3 drop that gives something Vulnerable as well as having Fearsome.
In this meta, it’s common to play Merciless Hunter on turn 3 to remove threats such as Eye of the Dragon and Akshan.
Camavaron Soldier / Rite of Calling
Camavaron Soldier gives you an Encroaching Mist to help buff Viego as well as be tribute fodder for Rite of Calling, Ravenous Butcher, and Spirit Leech.
An easy combo is using Camavaron Soldier to summon the Encroaching Mist and then using Rite of Calling on it to search Viego.
This allows Viego to come into play with one extra health which keeps him alive from Ravenous Flock, Black Spear, and Merciless Hunter.
Once Viego is on the field it’s extremely easy to start killing your own units to buff him and level him up.
Vile Feast / Despair
Vile Feast and Despair are your removal spells of the deck. Vile Feast is great against Aggro to kill their early game units, heal and summon a 1|1 blocker.
This card is a solid two-of because you don’t want to double draw it a lot of the time or see it too much against decks like Lee Sin.
The other removal spell of the deck is a new card called Despair. Despair allows you to effectively kill enemy backrow units.
You can kill Azir, Lee Sin, and opposing Viegos with Despair at the price of some health that Black Spear would not be able to kill. Since these Champs are particularly popular in this meta I opted to run 2 Despair.
Viego / Nasus
Viego and Nasus are your Champions/Win cons of the deck. You run 3 Viego because you want to see it in the mid-game as well as having higher odds of getting it off Rite of Calling.
The earlier you play Viego the earlier you can start leveling him and creating value off his Encroaching Mist for tribute fodder.
When Viego levels up you are most likely to win the game and this deck has a ton of early game units to help achieve it.
Having Nasus in the deck makes it so all of your early game Slays/trades contribute to a win-con.
A lot of decks can’t deal with Nasus stats especially backed up by Spellshield. You run 2 so he’s an alt-win con in the late game and you are more likely to see Viego of Rite of Calling first.
A buffed Viego or Nasus is also another win condition that works well with both of these Champions.
Good Matchups
This deck is well-rounded and good against all kinds of strategies. Against Aggro you are able to have stronger early game units, tons of blockers, and Vile Feast to remove there’s.
Once you transition to the mid-game you have tons of Slays and should be able to clean up with Nasus or Viego from there.
Against Azir Irelia all the Slays on the Blades and Sand Soldiers help to level Nasus as well so you can block in the early game and then go for a leveled Nasus on turn 6.
Against Ez Draven this deck is able to stall until turn 10 to play Nasus into Atrocity in one turn which can’t be stopped since they can’t damage Nasus and Scorched Earth it on the same stack.
Bad Matchups
Lee Sin can be a tough matchup for this deck due to the limited ways of stopping his otk.
In the early game, you can mulligan for huge early game pressure with Cursed Keeper/Ravenous Butcher combos. On turn 3 you can give their Eye of the Dragon vulnerable and continue the pressure to try and kill them before Lee Sin comes out.
If they do play Lee Sin you can use Despair on it and remove it if they don’t have Deny to protect it.
You take some damage but with Lee gone they lose their win condition and you should easily be able to win the game from there.
Tech Choices
Rite of Negation
This card can be used to back up Nasus/Viego when you have field control to ensure they level and win the game from there.
Sivir Akshan is popular right now and this card doesn’t have many uses in that matchup so I opted out of maining this card for now.
Black Spear
This card is generically good against cards like Ezreal/Irelia and doesn’t have the cost of taking damage as Despair does.
Currently, the meta has a lot of Azir, Viego, and Lee Sin so I main Despair to make sure I have answers for those.
Baccai Reaper
This card allows you to have stronger aggressive openings and win games before Viego/Nasus even come into play.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask NicMakesPlays during his streams (usually 6PM-1230AM EST).
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