Deck of the Day: Bandle Tree Noxus

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Bandle Tree created by Mezume • last updated 2 years ago

Standard

Regions

6

34

Types

5

19

13

3

0

Rarities

5

6

10

19

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (5)

1

Fizz

3

4

Poppy

2

landmarks (3)

4

The Bandle Tree

3

followers (19)

1

Proto Poro

1

2

Bandle Commando

3

2

Bomber Twins

2

2

House Spider

3

3

Bandle City Mayor

3

3

Loping Telescope

3

4

Aloof Travelers

2

4

Tenor of Terror

2

Spells (13)

1

Group Shot

2

1

Ravenous Flock

3

2

Pokey Stick

3

4

Buster Shot

3

6

Minimorph

2

• Origins

Hey everyone, it’s Mezume! The meta has started to settle down a little bit, but still, due to how many exciting new options we were given and due to the nerfs to some of the dominant decks, we still get to explore more and more strategies and archetypes!

Bandle Tree is one of the most straightforward and linear win conditions introduced – the card literally just reads: win the game if my condition is fulfilled. The way to make the strategy work was up for debate – but it seems we have found one of the best builds for it.

There are multiple versions going around, but the one that I’m featuring above is the variant using Noxus as the splash region, running House Spiders and Ravenous Flocks, and it seems to be the most popular. It is not completely optimized and some of the ratios will surely change, but it feels quite powerful already.

• Gameplan

The deck is completely built around fulfilling Bandle Tree’s condition, but coincidentally the build also provides us with a second win condition: swarming the enemy.

Our champions are Fizz and Poppy, but there are other versions that can also include Lulu as a 1- or 2-of. Their main purpose is to get us closer to the Bandle Tree win condition.

Fizz also doubles up as a decent 1-drop with some decent potential damage output, but there is not much to talk about here – he is just another Bandle Tree enabler.

Poppy is much more versatile, as she is capable not only of progressing Bandle Tree, she can also help us win through swarming the board, as all our cheap units will now become much more of a threat when buffed by her.

Most of the units in the deck are similar in a certain way: they are cheap, they are able to generate more units or spells, and, finally, they can give you access to different regions.

Bandle City Mayor and Loping Telescope are especially strong in the list, as they both allow you to nearly never run out of cards while making your board even wider.

Because it can swarm so easily, the deck can do well into aggressive strategies – House Spider and Tenor of Terror provide two bodies for blocking, while Bandle City Mayor lets you shoot out cheap cards like Proto Poro, Hungry Owlcat, and Fizz.

The go-wide strategy also lets us include Group Shot in the deck – a fantastic removal tool that stops low-health units from ever getting through.

Finally, Bandle Tree is the main win condition of the deck. Even if the swarm gameplan does not pan out, this landmark will win you the game on Round Start if you have summoned allies from all 10 regions. While this may seem difficult, keep in mind nearly all the units in the deck contribute a different region – even House Spider, whose Spiderling token is actually a Shadow Isles unit!

To put it short, the deck’s gameplan is to swarm the board and keep the opponent busy dealing with that, while we slowly progress our alternative win condition.

• Verdict

The moment Bandle Tree was revealed, I was fairly skeptical of its strengths. It seemed unlikely that we would get enough multi-region units to be able to trigger the condition early enough for it to be relevant. Now I stand corrected.

The deck seems to be doing quite well. It feels strong both when I play it and play against it (or its other versions) and nowadays you can even encounter it in the Top 20 of Masters leaderboard. I believe the deck is capable of staying in the meta long term, as it can fight against both aggro and control archetypes.

I would recommend trying this deck to absolutely everyone! It plays way different from most of what we see in LoR and alternative win conditions can really put certain decisions in a completely different perspective.