Call of the Mountain Day 1 Decks: 7 Exciting Brews from Top Players Featuring New Champions

It is finally here! Patch 1.8 has come and with it the latest expansion for Legends of Runeterra: Call of the Mountain! We have 89 new cards, including seven champions and an entirely new region in Targon. The floodgates have opened with the reveal of the last few cards for the expansion and the game’s top deckbuilders went to work brewing up a slew of new decks. If you are interested in what new options are available, you are in the right place.

Miss Fortune/Diana Aggro by 4LWlor

Starting off our list with some aggressive decks, we have one that pairs Miss Fortune and her brigands with Diana and her Lunari. It runs some of the Bilgewater cards we have all grown accustomed to in the form of Jagged Butcher, Black Market Merchant, Petty Officer, and more. To enable the Nightfall cards, Warning Shot is included as a 3-of, along with Make it Rain and Pale Cascade to round out the few cheap spells in this decklist. Pale Cascade is a great addition to decks like this as it helps your gameplan of pushing damage, and when it triggers Nightfall it replaces itself and progresses Diana.

This decklist focuses more on the Bilgewater side of things, running only Lunari Shadestalker, Crescent Guardian, and of course Diana in the Nightfall department. Those units are powerful in an aggressive shell like this and should put in a lot of work here. The deck tops out with a single copy of Riptide Rex (because why not?) and two copies of the new Bilgewater card for this expansion: Jack, the Winner. While Sleep with the Fishes isn’t a card most aggressive decks want early on, Jack lets you convert your smaller units into direct Nexus damage in the late game. 

Expect to see this deck everywhere in the early stages of the meta, when aggro decks tend to reign supreme while players are figuring out the best configurations of their more controlling brews.

Diana/Nocturne Nightfall Aggro by ManuS

If Bilgewater isn’t your thing, ManuS has put together a nice little aggro deck sporting Shadow Isles newest addition: Nocturne! This deck leans into the Nightfall mechanic more heavily than the Miss Fortune/Diana deck and leverages a bit of a tempo strategy with Nocturne. It runs various cheap spells from Shadow Isles such as Fading Memories and Sapling Toss to ensure you can trigger Nightfall without risking your Nightfall units. The deck also dips into Shadow Isles for Duskrider and Stygian Onlooker in the Followers category. These cards play well into the “unblockable” subtheme that is present in this archetype, leveraging several Overwhelm, Fearsome, and Elusive units. As this deck heavily relies on Nightfall triggers to operate at peak efficiency, the first play of each round will require some thought.

Lulu/Shen Aggro by Yangzera

I have one more deck for all the aggro lovers out there. This deck is essentially your run of the mill Demacia “curve-out” strategy. Most of the cards here are pre-CotM as Demacia only saw a a couple of additions this time around. That said, Lulu and Shen bolster the deck’s survivability and allow you to push extra damage through or trade up with your opponent’s units. For followers, Yangzera opted to add in Screeching Dragon and Young Witch from Call of the Mountain. Young Witch will make blocks difficult for your opponent and add to your damage output while Screeching Dragon is a powerful 5-drop that scales up thanks to Fury and can leash annoying blockers away from your smaller units. 

This archetype has been putting up strong results so far on the first day of the expansion and is situated well against the rest of the currently developing meta.

Taric/Fiora Midrange by MegaM0gwai

Moving on to some midrange lists, Mogwai has put together a Taric/Fiora list that seems to utilize Taric well. An unsurprising if not exciting enhancement coming with Call of the Mountain is increased synergy and support for, well… Support. Taric himself is the embodiment of a Support card and Fiora is here to benefit from every spell you cast on him. 

Mogwai is running some of the typical Demacian cards you may have come to expect in a Fiora deck. Tyari the Traveler, Mentor of the Stones, and War Chefs all use the Support mechanic to bolster your units. Pay attention to the new Targon Support cards. These “grant” your units stat buffs which, in Legends of Runeterra, means a permanent enhancement. Mountain Sojourners, of course, is here to make your Support conga line dreams a reality. 

In the spells department, Mogwai has included removal in the form of Single Combat and Concerted Strike. There is a 2/1 split in this list for Bastion and Hush, new Targon spells that can save your units from spells and silence enemy units. I expect this deck to be powerful and annoying to play against, but rewarding when you can chain your Support units together and buff them up. It will likely be quite capable of using Fiora to win games but can generate a large enough board state to get through with damage as well.

Swain/Leona by 4LWlor

This deck is heavily slanted towards Targon and focuses on a Daybreak subtheme, using Swain as a potential endgame plan after chipping in damage with your Daybreak units. The Solari followers will give you strong onboard presence the turn you play them, allowing you to trade up and survive into the late game. Broadbacked Protector is almost enough to level Swain on his own, so pairing this with some of the damage spells that Noxus brings to the table is likely the easiest way this deck levels Swain. 

This deck also sports a single copy of Bastion as players seem keen on trying out the new 3-mana protection spell. We also see two copies of Sunburst in this list. It functions as a Slow kill spell, a way to get you closer to leveling Swain, and a Daybreak card to trigger Leona. Speaking of Leona, she is the stronger focus in this deck. With a multitude of Daybreak cards in this deck, you are likely to have her leveled on turn 4 or 5 with good draws. The sooner she levels up, the sooner she is stunning your opponent’s board (thanks to Rahvun, Daylight’s Spear) and letting you swing in for lethal.

This deck looks like it will play as a midrange list, looking to make efficient trades before letting your powerful champions and top-end cards close the game out for you. Rahvun is likely to be a linchpin in all the Daybreak decks and this one is no exception.

Trundle/Tryndamere Midrange by firstpinkbeaver

The Trolls are loose and firstpinkbeaver wants to unleash them on their opponents! This list combines some of Freljord’s ramp spells with the new Troll followers and of course the Troll King himself: Trundle! The deck has a strong range of units from the 1-drop and 2-drop slots up through 8-drops in the form of Tryndamere. Wyrding Stones will help you to ramp out your larger units faster to close out games ahead of curve. There are a number of Behold payoffs in this list including Augur of the Old Ones, Troll Ravager, and Troll Scavenger, which will entice you to keep your 8+ cards in hand early on. This decklist runs a total of five 8+ cost cards in the form of Tryndamere and Battle Fury, but Trundle’s Ice Pillar will get the job done as well. 

Ideally, you will look to curve out and make efficient trades through the early- and mid-game. Once you are able to start playing your larger units and spells, closing the game should come relatively easily. This deck is closer to a more traditional midrange list than the others I’ve mentioned here so far and is perfect for players who want to curve out and make their way to the endgame.

Aurelion Sol Warmother Ramp by freshlobster

Last but certainly not least, we have a ramp deck featuring none other than the Celestial Dragon himself: Aurelion Sol! This champion was certainly the most brewed I saw on Day 1 and every deck I have seen looks sweet! This one focuses heavily on ramping up to play Warmother’s Call as a way to cheat Aurelion Sol into play for “free.” It runs the full three copies each of Catalyst of Aeons and Wyrding Stones to get you ahead on mana quickly. Other similar lists that I have seen also run Faces of the Old Ones.

Freshlobster has also opted to include a couple of the new Dragons we’ve received with Call of the Mountain, in the form of Fused Firebrand, Inviolus Vox, and The Infinite Mindsplitter. These big units make your Revitalizing Roar more effective and help to level Aurelion Sol more easily as well. The rest of the spell slots consist of cards to help your survivability while you ramp up – like Troll Chant and Starshaping – as well as Sunburst for some interaction with your opponent’s board. This deck is a bit different than some of the other Aurelion Sol lists that are running around this early and I look forward to finding out which one reigns supreme.

Conclusion

As expected, deckbuilders are crawling out of the woodwork to share their new creations with the rest of the Legends of Runeterra community and I have really been enjoying the lists that everyone is coming up with. What has been your favorite Call of the Mountain deck so far? Are you enjoying the new cards? Which deck are you most excited to try out next?