Galio Cithria: The Best Matron Deck I’ve Played

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Thresh Galio Matron Cithria by 4LW created by random7 • last updated 1 year ago

Regions

12

28

Types

6

21

13

0

0

Rarities

6

9

9

16

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

5

Thresh

3

7

Galio

3

followers (21)

1

Oblivious Islander

3

1

The Wings and The Wave

3

2

Fading Icon

3

2

Petricite Broadwing

3

4

Spirit Leech

3

8

Spectral Matron

3

10

Cithria, Lady of Clouds

3

Spells (13)

2

Glimpse Beyond

3

2

Vile Feast

2

3

Mobilize

3

3

Stalking Shadows

3

6

Vengeance

2

• Origins

Hi, Random7HS here with a Deck of the Day! I first saw this list a week ago when I hit the “Inspect” button next to 4LW’s name on the LoR Leaderboards and I’ve also been seeing the deck in my ladder games.

Matron Cithria has been around since Cithria, Lady of Clouds came out. Originally, this archetype was played with Shyvana. Later Duckling would win the Guardians of the Ancients Seasonal Tournament with a championless version of the deck. At the end of last season, a Kindred Lux variant of the deck started to rise in popularity.

The deck’s two biggest weaknesses have always been getting aggroed down early and not having a win condition without drawing Cithria, Lady of Clouds. Playing Kindred and Lux mitigates the second weakness to a certain extent by adding alternative win conditions your opponent has to answer. Galio mitigates this weakness even further by having a built-in Spellshield to protect himself.

• Gameplan

Like older versions of this deck, the primary win condition is to slowly build up a board while chump blocking your opponent’s attacks until you can summon Spectral Matron and Cithria, Lady of Clouds. If you have at least 3 to 4 units on board, doing so will pretty much win on the spot, barring Buried in Ice or The Ruination.

With 3 copies of both Mobilize and Oblivious Islander, you big play can often happen as early as turn 5 or 6. Although it may be tempting to use these cards for early tempo, try not to play them unless you have Spectral Matron or Cithria in hand. Similarly, if you have Stalking Shadows, look to play Stalking Shadows to draw Spectral Matron, Cithria, or Oblivious Islander – and then cast Mobilize.

In order to stall out the early to mid-game, this deck runs Fading Icon, The Wings and The Wave, Vile Feast, Petricide Broadwing, and Thresh. If given the opportunity to pass instead of trade, you generally want to take the pass unless you need to remove a key threat on the opposing board such as Miss Fortune or Twisted Fate. Keep in mind that every trade we make is 1 less unit to be buffed by Cithria.

The exception to this rule is if you can level Thresh. Leveling Thresh also plays into the deck’s secondary win condition of leveling Galio. Even in his base form, Galio already forces your opponent to either spend at least two cards killing him or to chump block every time he attacks.

Once Galio levels, the extra attack every turn will eventually burn most decks out of chump blockers. Note that Vile Feast can be used on your own unit to trigger Galio’s Rally.

The two win conditions of the deck synergize very well with each other. If you ever manage to summon both Galio and Cithria, Galio will almost always level to guarantee the win.

• Verdict

After playing this deck a dozen times on the ladder, I think this is the best Cithria Matron deck I’ve played. The Galio can carry even if you’ve not drawn your main combo pieces. Unfortunately, Galio does not help the deck survive against more aggressive decks.

When you have a good draw and manage to summon a turn 6 or 7 Spectral Matron into Cithria, Lady of Clouds with other units on board, the game is often sealed against most meta decks. However, against more aggressive decks, the deck struggles to consistently get hands that can both survive the early game and find its combo pieces early enough to win.

If the meta slows down, and midrange decks like Lurk and Akshan Sivir become more popular, I could see this archetype becoming much scarier. Until then, if you want a fun deck that summons gargantuan units every other game, this is the deck for you. If you are looking for an efficient list to climb the ladder with right now, this is not the deck for you. 

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this deck!