Deck of the Day: Viego Ionia Control

Viego is one of the strongest late-game champions in the game, and Ionia is a perfect region to help him live out his dream.

  • Origins

Shadow Isles and Ionia have been two of the strongest control regions in LoR since release. They both have incredible tools to stall the game out while also having some crazy finishers to close games out.

Viego is a new top-end threat that scales incredibly well the longer the game goes. Not only does he grow himself, but his Encroaching Mists all become larger as well.

Viego’s biggest problem is getting to the end-game consistently, and Ionia is a perfect pairing to allow you to do so. Add the fact that there have been some serious buffs to Ionia (in this deck, Greenglade Lookout and Twin Disciplines have both seen massive buffs) and you have a perfect reason to give this deck a shot!

  • Gameplan

As I was saying, our game plan here is to stall as long and as efficiently as possible until we can build a huge army of Mists and a huge Viego.

We have plenty of chump blockers and removal spells to deal with any aggressive push. Our biggest play against a midrange strategy is the combo of Darkwater Scourge and Death Mark. The latter also has a huge bonus of being able to remove a large target while keeping one of our massive Encroaching Mists on the board permanently!

Being in Ionia also helps us to some solid protection from big spells and removal for our key pieces. We want to protect Viego and the Invasive Hydravine as long as possible, ideally so Viego can level. Getting out the Hydravine earlier with strikes from the Greenglade Lookout can expedite this plan as well.

We plan to finish the game in the late turns by either leveling Viego and dominating the board, or going after their Nexus with a safe Atrocity on a massive Viego or Encroaching Mist.

Mulligan tips: For some of our cards, the decision about either we keep them or not is very matchup-dependant, but some other cards can be kept universally. Let’s start with these good general keeps: Greenglade Lookout, Camavoran Soldier, and Fading Icon. If you’re going against aggro you want to also consider keeping Vile Feast and Darkwater Scourge. If you’re going against another control deck consider keeping Viego. And lastly, if you ever have the Greenglade Lookout, keep the Invasive Hydravine to start reducing its cost ASAP. 

  • Verdict: 9 out of 10

Overall this deck fits perfectly into the idea of Shadow Isles Ionia Control. It’s a versatile and powerful late-game deck utilizing all of the amazing tools these regions have to make a huge force in the meta.

This version above is from Cephalopod, so make sure to check him out on Twitter!


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Shane
Shane

Shane has played strategy card games since before he could read, thanks to his older brother teaching him how to memorize what each card did. Currently, he is the Host of the Twin Sunz Podcast, a Legends of Runeterra podcast and community with offerings for players of all levels of skill.

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