Best Decks from Day 1 of Patch 3.0

Patch 3.0 is finally out, introducing a ton of buffs to various cards, including champions, followers, and spells. The balance update also brings along with it a couple of nerfs to powerful staples like Bandle City Mayor and Lecturing Yordle.

Usually, with every new patch, a new meta emerges, and the first couple of days are all about testing and experimentation. The ladder environment is more volatile than usual, as both new ideas and old rediscovered archetypes fight to prove themselves in the renewed metagame.

In this article, I will feature 5 decks that were played on the first day of the latest patch 3.0.0, and performed fairly well on the competitive ladder.

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We’re starting off with Zoe Aurelion Sol deck that heavily relies on Targon’s Peak to set up its win condition.

The archetype received a buff to one of its top-end cards, It That Stares. Another potential inclusion that was made stronger in the update is Voices of the Old Ones – and it can be run in the deck, but so far felt a little slow.

You’re usually looking for Targon’s Peak in your opening hand, along with one of your ramp cards, Faces of the Old Ones and Catalyst of Aeons. The ramp allows you to play Targon’s Peak a turn earlier to start slamming down heavy late-game threats as early as turn 5!

The list runs a lot of expensive units: Aurelion Sol, It That Stares, She Who Wanders, and the ultimate late-game spell, Feel The Rush. Your goal is to get Targon’s Peak to hit one of those cards and reduce their mana cost down to 0.

Handy and classic removal cards help you control the board: Avalanche and Blighted Ravine are crucial to keep the board in check, preventing your opponent from going wide.

Although Zoe Aurelion Sol didn’t receive massive buffs to its cards, it’s very well-positioned at this time. The meta is shifting to control decks, which gives you more time to set up your plays and eventually outvaluing your opponent with a leveled-up Aurelion Sol.

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Brood Awakening is back! A card enjoyed a brief surge of popularity when the game was released in 2020, but then it fell off after the nerf it received in patch 1.2, increasing its mana cost from 5 to 6.

Elise Trundle runs a lot of cards that received buffs in the latest patch: Trundle, Brood Awakening, Iceborn Legacy, and Vengeance. The list I chose to feature is created by Cephalopod, a Master player on the America server. The list performed well on Day 1 of the ladder.

The archetype exists solely because of Iceborn Legacy‘s buff, the card changing from a Slow spell to a Burst spell is a massive upgrade, allowing for uninteractable buffs on your Spiderlings.

The list runs many Spiderlings in the deck: cards like Elise, Hapless Aristocrat, Vile Feast, Brood Awakening, and Crawling Sensation all allow you to summon Spiderlings on the board that will have additional stats to them depending on the number of Iceborn Legacies played in the game.

The idea is to go wide with those Spiderlings and slowly take control of the board. Additionally, the deck runs Howling Abyss, which acts as an alternative win condition in case your spiders are just not enough to close out the game.

Trundle acts as a solid champion with great stats that can push Overwhelm damage later on in the game once he’s leveled up.

Right now you can encounter several different variations of Elise Trundle lists on the ladder – another version of the deck opts to cut out Howling Abyss and add Commander Ledros along with Atrocity.

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Here’s another control deck on our list! Viego decks existed in the previous metas, where the champion was usually paired with either Elise or Thresh, some versions of the deck even ran Viego as a solo champion.

But with the recent buff to Kindred, the champion seems to fit the deck perfectly, providing is a secondary win condition that allows you to slowly pick off your opponent’s units with Kindred’s mark. A leveled-up Kindred will gain +2|+2 stats each round you Slay a unit, making it more and more difficult for your opponent to deal with them.

The Ionia region runs a lot of defensive cards that help keep your key units alive, and both Kindred and Viego are important to stay on the board. Throughout the game, Viego will gain stats as he remains on the board and summons Encroaching Mists.

Eventually, you will start taking over the game with massive stats of Encroaching Mists. Invasive Hydravine is a late-game card that will consistently put pressure on your opponent with summoned Mists turn after turn.

The most notable change in the new list compared to the older versions is that now players are choosing to take out Atrocity for Vengeance. It seems that the sheer board presence they can have with Kindred in the list is enough to create a win condition without relying on a narrow finisher card like Atrocity.

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The Poros are here! This list was created by Swimstrim, and he managed to end his run with a score of 13 wins and 5 defeats. It seems to be the most consistent version of the archetype at the time of writing this article.

This is another deck that gains value from Iceborn Legacy – the fact that your Poros now get buffed by both Iceborn Legacy and Poro Snax can turn your low stat Poros into frightening threats with Elusive keyword.

Your game plan is to buff up all your Poros and just clog up the board, and the main win condition is simply going face with your Elusive Poros. Poro Cannon allows you to create two additional Daring Poros and, if need be, Iterative Improvement can come in handy if another Elusive Poro is needed.

Patched Porobot could potentially gain the Elusive keyword as well, but the Overwhelm keyword can also suffice in most cases if you manage to buff up the Poros enough.

An interesting card being run in the list is Station Archivist, it allows you to look for Poro Snax or Iceborn Legacy in the top 5 cards in your deck to gain additional stats on your Poros.

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Last but not least, we have Zilean Xerath Taliyah – the Shurima Bandle City deck that has made a comeback on Day 1 of the competitive ladder.

Zilean Xerath Taliyah is an archetype that revolves around landmarks to set up its game plan. Zilean offers the Predict keyword along with Time Bombs that synergize well with both Xerath and The Arsenal.

Taliyah is cute in the deck, but not necessary and you could opt to go for 3 copies of Zilean instead. Taliyah’s ability to copy a landmark can give you value in the form of additional Sarcophagus, or, when played on Stasis Statue, can even summon an additional copy of a champion.

Desert Naturalist is a versatile card that allows you to either destroy your opponent’s landmark, trigger Sarcophagus to summon Restored Devout, or destroy Hexplosive Minefield to stun a unit.

Both Xerath and The Arsenal act as win conditions. A leveled-up Xerath will pretty much dominate the board, the 3 damage the champion deals, once a landmark is destroyed, ensures that you’ll be taking control of the board to start setting up for solid attacks.

The Arsenal, on the other hand, is a heavy mana commitment, but if you’d destroyed a lot of landmarks throughout the game, you’ll gain ton of keywords. This will turn The Arsenal into a win condition especially if you gain Spellshield along with Overwhelm or Elusive.

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Closing Words

The meta was all over the place for Day 1 of the patch. Aggressive decks were almost non-existent, which made decks like Zoe Aurelion Sol Peak and Mono Shurima quite playable on the competitive ladder.

One old archetype that showed up from nowhere is Miss Fortune Quinn Scouts deck – it actually performs well into decks like Elise Trundle Iceborn Legacy, Mono Shurima, and Peak.

Some of the lists I’ve featured in the article might not be the best-refined versions – as the meta settles down, the archetypes should evolve to accommodate for the popular meta decks.

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