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Lyonar Kingdoms Round Table - Trials of Mythron

#1

Lyonar Kingdoms Round Table Trials of Mythron

Lyonar Goes to the Gym Edition

Lyonar players, assemble!

Trials of Mythron is just about here so let’s get to the theorycrafting and the planning. I’ll be using the same format I used last time. I’ll briefly go over some potential I see for every Faction card and Neutrals that I think are of special interest to us, I invite you to do both as well in the comments. I’ll be using my own Colloquial Tierlyst to help qualify my judgements so have a read there if you’re not getting why certain words are capitalized. We have a properly sized expansion on our hands this time around so there’s a lot to digest! As usual, I’ve sorted the new cards by the archetype (existing or potential) the belong to.

Set Rotation vs Lyonar
Losing Denizens of Shim’Zar isn’t especially damaging for Lyonar but we are losing several useful tools. Losing Afterblaze is a big blow for Zeal decks, losing Dawn’s Eye pretty much kills any hope for an Artifact-centric Solo deck (assuming EMP is getting nerfed) and Ironcliffe Heart will be sorely missed in some Bond variants. We should be okay on this front in terms of competing though because none of these cards were pushing Lyonar’s power level forward to any significant degree.

Generic Support


Lifestream is probably the best individually strong card to come out for Lyonar. I don’t see it doing much in Tempo Heal and Zoo decks but will likely be a 3-of everywhere else. The bigger the target, the better, but just getting a reliable tutor that thins the deck is strong. This’ll be a Staple until it rotates out.


I was hoping to see some more cards that explained to me why Indominus is the way it is, but we didn’t get any. I don’t get what this card is trying to achieve. If the effect stuck around a while after Indominus got removed things might be different but it looks like Trash to me.

Bond Support


Looks like CPGs response to our complaints about Divine Bond as the only real win condition in Lyonar was something like “Oh really, well here’s some more!” because now we can get entire posses swole at once. For this to work you need to be able to generate and maintain a board and we don’t have a Bond deck that does this yet. Maybe we’ll get a Bond Zoo hybrid deck of some type, or maybe Legion will be able to get the job done. It looks too conditional to me when compared to Divine Bond, but I’m going Viable on this one.


The only way this card works is if Divine Liturgy works. Will that happen? I don’t expect it will. Spending the 2 mana to Intensify this (and then hoping to draw it) seems like a good way to lose a match before you can do anything. But maybe the meta will slow down enough for it to work. Until then, I’m betting this card is Trash.


It’s just really really bad. Trash.

Zeal Support


Afterblaze out, Marching Orders in! What a cool card for Brome to play with! Spreading out the effect is really great for protecting against removal and the Aegis effects is absolutely insane. This is going to be rocking some worlds in a Zeal deck. Watch out for Sandswirl Reader and Eternity Painter though.


Without Marching Orders it’s worse than Wings of Paradise. With Marching Orders this is actually Niche playable, and finally gives Lyonar enough bodies for a fully stocked Zeal minion deck. The 2-drop slot is still sparse but whatever.

Zoo Support



This card is probably just a Meme but if it’s going to work anywhere it’s probably here. Zoo has the buffs Scarzig would need to destroy anything ánd survive the ordeal, and the deck would actually benefit from the Feather Knight’s buffs. Try it out if you get it from an Orb.


Is this even Zoo support? It’s weird and random and I can’t think of a deck with enough 1-Attack minions that can actually pull this off. Legion might help but would also slow a Zoo deck way down. And the payoff is random anyway. I think it’s probably Trash, what do you think?

Heal Support


Zir’an appreciates a good strong Viable 3-drop! It’d be great if opponents ran this cute little thing as well. Silverguard Knight is more reliably strong but the Pridebeak can do some real work against spell-heavy opponents like Shidai. I’ll be trying it out.


Healyonar has been a tempo deck for a while, and here is another Niche 3-drop that might fit into it very well. It can be difficult to have enough damage on Zir’an in the early turns so getting a strong tempo body that can help in that regard might be nice because Zir’An can heal it all back easily as long as she can maintain that tempo lead!

Recruit Support


Legion is such a fascinating card that I don’t really know where to put it. I think CPG is trying for a new “recruit” subtheme in Lyonar where minions generate other minions. Legion looks great for Zeal decks and Zoo decks but I think it’s in a league of its own. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets run in a mid-range “company” deck that just summons a bunch of minions every turn, I dunno. Looks like a Staple in several potential decks.


Radiant Standards is just oozing potential. +3 Attack for 3 mana is decent by itself and you can pull some very good cards if you build your deck around it. Legion, Auroara, Silverguard Knight, Surgeforger, Scintilla, Sunforge Lancer, and it can pull Neutrals too! You do have to build the deck around it but I see possiblity. Very Niche card to be sure.


A 4 mana 7/7? In my Lyonar? Not exactly, but still pretty interesting. I hope the Alarmist lets you pick the placement for Protector. If it does, this could be a very strong T2 play. Losing the Protector from its effect removes it from the resurrection pool (because it got transformed) and paying 4 mana for 2 2/2’s is not very impressive. Songhai is probably going to make this Viable duo impossible, but I’m still hoping.

Bulk Support


Lyonar might have finally gotten its win condition! In the proper Niche deck you’re summoning up to 8 Provokes in an airtight seal around your General. Play it in a slow deck that can keep your General alive and you can try to run the opponent out of resources.

That’s the optimistic version. Reality is likely to be that this effect is way too weak to compete with other slow decks in the meta (Hatefurnace and Xor’Xuul come to mind), and slowing down for this (admittedly big, but also unwieldy) payoff is probably not going to work. Still, we might be closer to making Martyrdom playable than ever before, so cross your fingers!


Ironcliffe Guardian is probably better, but this is still good so if you need more big Provokes at 5 Mana you got 'em. It’s possible that the Immolation threat does more than I expect but I’m not convinced yet. It would kind of bug me if CPG just made a strictly better Guardian though.

Conclusion

I think Lyonar got several good cards, but nothing that makes me think the Faction is going to generate a top-tier deck this rotation. Lifestream is good, Marching Orders is good, Legion is good and War Exorcist is good-ish. Everything else isn’t necessarily bad but do more to enable or maintain certain decks than elevate them. Still, I think there’s hope for a big, beefy Bulkyonar deck where there wasn’t any before. I hope.

What do you think? What does the way forward look like for Lyonar?

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Factions, unite!
#2

25%20PM I think I could have fit Strategos into my swarm/ zoo Brome list even as it was, but with 5 slots opening up due to rotation and at least 2 more being flex spots i hoping to make it work. the deck currently has 18 one attack minions plus bbs

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#3

I think that Divine Liturgy could see potential in a Lyonar Mythron Zoo list, in conjunction with Auroara and Strategos. Bolster really helps push this as well, in conjunction with minions like Celebrant, Shiro, and Warblade already having a base of 4 attack. Ash Mephyt could also be a great card to combine with Strategos’ effect, along with Jax Truesight and/or Jaxi. I also feel like the 3 mana turn all cards in your hand into legendaries can be very useful in the late game, when you use Legion to fill up your hand with Crestfallen.

#4

Good analysis. Agree with you on most of the cards. Once again, it seems as if most of Lyonar’s cards are rather cute than powerful.

Don’t really see any of these cards putting any sort of mid-range/tempo Argeon lists back into the limelight. Feels as if they want to push swarm a lot. So maybe that finally becomes a tier one contender. Though it makes me sad that their might not be another viable Lyonar deck that actually interacts with the opponent. Seems as if the game plan will once again be “execute your mediocre strategy and hope that the opponent doesn’t do anything powerful”. Powerful still being “play a minion with more than 5 health”. Where are Lyonar’s removal spells =(

Well, here’s to hoping being wrong. If only our Trial guy wouldn’t be so durdly :confused:

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#5

overall trash support remade trash bond… i mean that 6 mana card is only good in swarm it reminds me of that eternal game where they spam a bunch of minions then summon a card to give minions +2 attack… but whatever this expansion makes me salty as a ziran main so overall 2/10… as for “legion” its 3 mana -_- i would only test one if it was 2 mana no problem magmar just laughs at us like insects tryna fight mechazoid (im refering to magmar)

only thing my deck would be transformed into is a provoke deck obviously only good things i see here… but not that 4 mana trash card tho hell nah the drawback is way too painful just warbeast it down 5/5 transforms then it dies for free so silly of a drawback design

#6

I’ll just say this - call to arms 8 mana then you use the new wincon

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#7

You can always run the new bond on zoo monument list

#8

@thematsjo, I thought you liek Helyonar:

I assume this card could be AWESOME earlygame option for Zir’An. Even more so if trying hybrid healarcana approach.

0 mana heal 1 without card disadvantage? Give me more!

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#9

May the great Eyos bless you for knowing how to properly tag a thread.

3 Likes
#10

Call to arms is still unplayable because it has no immediate impact despite its high mana cost. It could’ve been if it was: Give all friendly minions +3/+3. Your General gains, “Minions you summon nearby gain +3/+3.”

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#12

if call to arms was unable to be dispelled then sure but thats just too risky these days might be fun in silver ranks… i wont rule it out tho i will definitely try it because im going full 6 aegis barrier mode sanctify to pressure them hard back to back ironcliffe and new 5 mana legendary nonestop wait for first emp to pass before playing it

#13

Btw with the new Alcuin, you can cast an Aegis barrier every turn…you have been warned

#14

Holy shit

15 characters

#15

The problem I see is that summoning 10 minions takes a long time and you should’ve won the match before you got to that point. Then you might say that Strategos is more of a back-up plan. Fair enough, but it’s clogging up your hand the whole match, you still need to actually summon it, and then the payoff is random ánd only works if you’re winning (ie you have a decent board) to boot! You don’t know what you’re going to get, and with all your very cheap minions you’re not likely to get a lot of stuff with game-ending effects. I can only get it to work in my head with meme-logic. But please try it out and let me know because I’d really like to actually play Mythron cards.

My response is the same is it was to @mrwavey. I do like the meme potential with Orbo though, that could be fun.

If only it were remotely playable…

@CPG, please buff Call to Arms into a replacement BBS for 3 Mana that applies the same effect (first trigger for free)!

I’ve been kind of passing over Araras Prophet, but let’s discuss it a bit. I really really really like the card in general, but I worry if it’s going to offer enough tempo for the deck. Investing in one or two Brilliant Plumes could be, well, brilliant if they come up but it’s all for naught if you’re too busy doing damage control to use them effectively. I see potential, but the randomness in drawing it in an archetype that needs to be blisteringly fast makes me skeptical. Now, if we could get that Heal-Arcanyst Bond hybrid working that might change things, but that archetype has been too clumsy in the past.

This is probably garbage, but something in this direction maybe?

deckLandscapeLyonar
Replace Auryn Nexus with Lifestream, and Aethermaster with Araras Prophet.

True, but I don’t see us having space to afford to sink 5 Mana into a 2/5 anytime soon…

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#16

Durdled around a bit with the Strategos. Felt about as underwhelming as expected. You need to overload on shitty minions to reliably get him out, which means you also have to run quite a bit of draw to refill your hand. Then, when you do get him out, he just turns your shitty minions into slightly less shitty minions. Randomly. Which means quite a lot of them will have subpar stat lines because they were balanced with their OG or static abilities in mind.

Because all of your deck is running lots of shitty minions and draw, there’s barely any room for anything else. Buffs are doable, but somewhat clunky because the Strategos wipes all your minions clean with every transformation. Any sort of relevant control cards delay your Strategos by so much that your shitty minions look even worse then they did during the early turns. The only seemingly strong play that I could come up with was to forego any sort of interactive spells and to only include Bolster (+2 health to all minions) and the new mass Divine Bond to have the chance to outright kill your opponent once your Strategos has started snowballing. But even that requires your opponent to let you start your turn with a healthy board and in range of your minions. As soon as you need to trade to keep the opponent’s game plan in check, it becomes very hard to win.

In short: plays like the old iterations of Swarm. Decent when you get the perfect draw, poor when you have the slightest hiccup or your opponent dares to interfere with your plan. Or even worse: do something even remotely strong on their turn.

Why has Lyonar become the dum-dum faction that just blurts out random doofuses and hopes to win just like that =(

After 18 seasons of Lyonar as my main faction I am very tempted to just switch to Arcanyst Shidai. That’s how a good minion deck is supposed to look.

#17

Kindly ask that you reconsider. Strategos brome is arguably the strongest deck in the meta atm. try running jax, as it means you win on 7

#18

Can you whip up something approaching a decklist on that?

#19

Sure!

deckLandscapeLyonar%20(4)

Several others have differing variants. This is what I ended up settling on.

Fun fact: this deck has a 100% wr as player 2 in S (n = 7 games so far)

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#20

from my experience, strategos is game-winning. If you build a deck with nothing but 1 attack token producers such as zyx, jaxi, and legion, as well as card draw, you can consistently get him out by turn 6. From that point forward you just draw cards with trinity oath and fealty and drown your opponent in value. I havn’t played with or against it yet, but war exorcist seems REALLY good. You’re only missing -2 hp (which isn’t that big of a deal) and airdrop (slightly more annoying) to gain self healing, potential aoe damage around it, and healing for your other minions.

#21

interesting idea. However, I’m not sure if exorcist > ash mephyt, which generates 3x 6 drops post mythron (2 elyxes are usually lethal since the entire board can just fly in on him)