The Demacia Patch Wishlist – Ten Buff Candidates For Demacia

Introduction

Hello there, Raphterra here! Today’s article is the second entry in Regional Patch Wishlists, an article series where I feature sets of cards that I’d like to see buffed from each region. I published the first entry in this series (The Freljord Patch Wishlist) a few days ago; make sure to check that out if you find these topics interesting! In this article, I’ll be featuring Demacia, a region that’s known to be focused on combats and strikes.

Most Demacia decks in the history of the game win by rallying multiple times with a wide board. Recently, the developers decided to hard-nerf Golden Aegis and Relentless Pursuit as an attempt to freshen up Demacia‘s meta identity. However, this proved to be ineffective; Demacia‘s top decks still revolve around attacking multiple times through Vayne and Demacian Scouts.

The proposed buffs in this article will be aimed towards magnifying Demacia‘s other region identities. With more Vayne and rally nerfs likely coming in the near future, it is imperative that Demacia receives much needed compensation buffs to its underplayed archetypes.

Disclaimer

Please take note that for these changes, I will be going out of my way to buff cards until I think that they are strong enough for climbing ranked ladder. There is no way for me to test my proposed changes, so some of these might turn out to be overpowered or negligible if implemented. With that in mind, I will be including options for stronger (power-boost) or weaker (fail-safe) versions of each card.

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Elites Should Live Up To Their Name!

Elites is an archetype that has existed since Legends of Runeterra’s beta phase. The developers have recently released cool support cards for Elites, but the archetype has remained underwhelming. These first set of changes will focus on making Elites competitive.

Penitent Squire‘s Tattered Banner – The next time you summon an ally this round, grant it Challenger. If it’s an Elite, grant it Last Breath: Create a Tattered Banner in hand.

Growing stronger when challenging opposing units is one of Elite‘s archetype identities. Honored Lord, Gallant Rider, Swiftwing Flight, and Jarvan IV all gain positive effects when they challenge enemies. This rework to Penitent Squire‘s Tattered Banner would allow Elite challenger decks to consistently pull off their gameplan. When one of your Elites fall, the others will take up the banner!

Power-boost: If this turns out to be too weak, change Tattered Banner‘s card text to: “The next time you summon an ally this round, grant it Challenger. If it’s an Elite, create a Tattered Banner in hand.”

For The Fallen – Reduce my cost by 1 for each Elite you’ve summoned this game. For each ally that died this round, summon a Dauntless Vanguard.

Demacia‘s For The Fallen is a very awkward card. Its discount requirement makes you want to keep it in the opening hand since the card is often unplayable if drawn late. However, Elite decks usually want to hard mulligan for an early curve to establish a strong board presence. This means that For The Fallen is only useful if you draw it in the opener while also having a good early curve. This proposed buff aims to make For The Fallen a more reliable board insurance tool for Elites.

Fail-safe: If this turns out to be too strong, increase For The Fallen‘s cost to 9 or 10.

Captain Arrika – Play: Capture a unit or landmark. If you’ve summoned 7+ Elites this game, create a 0-cost copy of that unit or landmark in your hand.

I have a strong belief that 8+ cost units in Legends of Runeterra should be very impactful upon play. In the right deck, this version of Captain Arrika can turn games around with a huge tempo swing. This would hopefully give players more reasons to build Elite-centric Demacia decks.

Author’s edit: As SaltyOtaku1 from Reddit pointed out, the change above probably won’t happen because Riot wouldn’t want Captain Arrika to be able to duplicate opposing champions. Below is an alternative version that is much weaker, but more realistic in terms of card design.

Fail-safe / Power-boost: If this turns out to be too strong or too weak, increase or reduce Captain Arrika‘s Elite requirement. Removing Captain Arrika‘s Spellshield could also be an option to weaken her.

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Let Loose The Dragons!

Dragons are one of the coolest races/archetypes/classes not just in Legends of Runeterra, but also in other games, movies, and shows. The following proposed changes aim to help Demacia‘s Dragon archetype keep up with today’s fast-paced meta.

Dragon Chow – 1c 1/2

Dragon Chow has the issue of being a completely dead card if you don’t draw your your Dragons in a timely manner. Giving it a 1/2 statline allows it to at least trade evenly into most one-cost units, for those games where you just don’t draw your Dragons early.

Power-boost: If this turns out to be too weak, change Dragon Chow‘s stats to 2/1.

Egghead Researcher – Play: Create a random Dragon in hand or reduce the cost of a Dragon in hand by 1.

Egghead Researcher has a poor statline for a 2-cost unit, and generating a random Dragon isn’t often enough to compensate for the tempo loss of playing him. This change will allow Egghead Researcher to synergize with maindecked Dragons, while still retaining his ability to generate value if needed.

Fail-safe: If turns out to be too strong, change Egghead Researcher‘s text to “Play: Create a random Dragon in hand or reduce the cost of the next Dragon you play by 1.“

Stalking Broodmother – Last Breath: Summon a Protective Broodfather at next Round Start.

I’ve always been a fan of Stalking Broodmother and Protective Broodfather, but including them in decks can be too risky because of their high cost. This change wants to increase the reward-risk ratio for running Stalking Broodmother. It’s also fitting to the card’s design that the Broodfather will come enraged if the Broodmother dies!

Author’s note: Shoutout to Aeolius for helping me refine this card rework!

Fail-safe: If this turns out to be too strong, change Stalking Broodmother‘s text to: “When I’m summoned, if you do not Behold Protective Broodfather, draw him from your deck.”. Increasing Stalking Broodmother‘s cost to 8 is also an option.

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Mageseekers Seek Help!

Mageseekers, the persecutors of magic, are one of the most unique and interesting groups in Runeterra. Their in-game archetype hasn’t seen any relevant competitive play; the following changes aim to bring their anti-magic theme into the spotlight.

Mageseeker Inciter – Play: if you’ve played a 6+ cost spell this game, your opponent’s spells next turn cost 2 more.

This change replaces the generic stat-boost effect of Mageseeker Inciter to become more in line with the Mageseeker lore. This will make Mageseeker Inciter a true anti-magic card, and will give Demacia a tool similar to Ionia‘s Deny. A great application would be playing Mageseeker Inciter one turn before you play key cards like Lux, Jayce, or Heimerdinger.

Fail-safe: If this card turns out to be too strong, reduce Mageseeker Inciter‘s stats to 3/4 or 3/3.

Lord Eldred, Mageseeker Leader – Each round, the first time you play a 6+ cost spell, create a Mageseeker Inciter in hand.

Lord Eldred is the leader of the Mageseekers, but his effect doesn’t have any synergy with other Mageseeker cards. This change should hopefully make playing Lord Eldred feel like playing the true leader of the Mageseekers. His character design gives off vibes of being a “boss-monster” for a deck, and I wanted to bring him closer to that!

Fail-safe: If this turns out to be too strong, reduce Lord Eldred, Mageseeker Leader‘s stats accordingly.

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Variety Card Buffs

The following are variety changes and upgrades to other interesting cards in Demacia.

Laurent Bladekeeper – Play: Equip an ally with a Forged Demacian Steel.

This change upgrades Laurent Bladekeeper to be more in line with the new era of equipments. He still technically gives the same number of stats, but this time he gives allies a forged Demacian Steel instead. Design-wise, it only makes sense that you should be able to re-equip the blade he provides.

Fail-safe / Power-boost: Adjust Laurent Bladekeeper‘s stats as needed.

Brightsteel Formation – When I’m summoned or Attack: Summon a Brightsteel Protector, then give all allies Barrier this round.

Brightsteel Formation was one of my favorite late-game cards in the era when Fiora Shen was still dominant. Nowadays, Brightsteel Formation has become too slow and expensive for what it does, given that it requires you to have a strong board to be effective. This change gives more stand-alone value to Brightsteel Formation, which I believe is more fitting for a 9-cost unit. From a gameplay standpoint, I feel that this effect would make the card more thematic and in line with the “Brightsteel Formation” name.

Fail-safe: If this turns out to be too strong, lower Brightsteel Formation‘s stats to 7/7.

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Closing Words

That’s for the list! Demacia is one of my favorite regions in the game, and I’d love for the region to be a lot more than being just the “rally region”. I think that there is a lot of potential for cool archetypes based on the lore of Demacia, and I hope that the developers can bring life to Demacia‘s other region identities in LOR. In the next article of this series, I will be covering my personal buff recommendations for Targon. Stay tuned!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on YouTube, Discord, or Twitter!