The Return of Karma: Karma Viktor

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Karma Viktor by Catasus created by random7 • last updated 1 year ago

Regions

23

17

Types

6

11

23

0

0

Rarities

6

1

10

23

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

4

Viktor

3

5

Karma

3

followers (11)

1

Zaunite Urchin

2

2

Ballistic Bot

3

2

Boom Baboon

3

2

Eye of the Dragon

1

3

Sump Dredger

2

Spells (23)

0

Thermogenic Beam

1

1

Poro Cannon

3

2

Mystic Shot

3

2

Nopeify!

1

2

Twin Disciplines

3

3

Get Excited!

3

4

Deny

2

4

Spirit’s Refuge

2

4

Will of Ionia

2

5

Deep Meditation

3

Origins

Hi, Random7HS here with a write-up on Karma Viktor. Piltover & Zaun has a long history of being paired with Ionia. Older players may remember the days in which the meta was dominated by Karma Ezreal and Heimerdinger. More recently, Sirtumund climbed to the top of the AM ladder with Viktor Lee Sin. Karma Viktor, made by Catasus and popularized by Sorry, is the newest iteration in a long line of P&Z Ionia decks.

I have been a huge fan of Karma decks since 2020. Once I saw the deck, I had to try it out. I queued the deck up on the ladder and immediately went 41 – 11, climbing to the top 20 of the Americas ladder.

Karma Viktor solves the biggest weakness of Viktor Lee Sin. Viktor Lee Sin would often have issues winning drawn-out games because the deck had no way of giving Lee Sin overwhelm. Karma solves this by refilling your hand with both doubled-up Deep Mediation and her recent buff, while at the same time, doubling Mystic Shots and Get Excited to finish off low HP opponents.

Gameplay

Karma Viktor is interesting in that it has two main game plans. The first is to stall the game out until turn 10 when Karma can win you the game by generating infinite value.

To do this, the deck runs early game cards like Zaunite Urchin, Poro Cannon, Boom Baboon, and Sump Dredgers. Mystic Shot and Get Excited can remove pesky early units and Will of Ionia can reset buffed units. Additionally, the deck runs Ballistic Bot and Viktor, both of which your opponent has to answer or they will slowly lose the game.

All of these cards also feed into your secondary win condition of just swarming the board and finishing your opponent off with burn and Elusive damage. Will of Ionia can be used as a tempo card to remove big blockers; Get Excited and Mystic Shot can be used as game-ending burn.

Even if you don’t manage to kill your opponent off early, if you reach turn 10, any early damage becomes relevant when Karma doubles the damage of all burn spells. If you don’t have enough burn to win, you can play your secondary win condition of just grinding your opponent out of cards.

If you were able to save any Deep Meditations for turn 10, Karma drawing four cards will often win the game on the spot. If not, Karma, with the recent buff, will generate a free spell every turn. Additionally, if you have a Viktor on board with Karma, Karma will grant 2 keywords to Viktor every turn, forking your opponent into having to choose to deal with either the Karma or the Viktor.

Verdict

I personally think that Karma Viktor is one of the best decks in the game right now and I am almost definitely bringing it to Seasonals next weekend. However, like most Karma decks, it is not the easiest deck to play. Oftentimes, you have to make decisions about whether it is best to go for lethal, clear the board, or simply save spells for Karma on turn 10.

However, if you do choose to master the deck, the deck has very few unwinnable matchups. Karma Viktor has favorable matchups against Pantheon, FTR, and Sion, while being even or slightly unfavored into most Shurima decks. Even against bad matchups, because of the number of options the deck can take, you can often finagle a win if your opponent makes one misstep.

For anyone who either likes a challenge or likes to play Karma decks, I would one hundred percent recommend taking the time to play and learn the deck. Karma Viktor is one of the most rewarding decks to play and it is my personal favorite deck in the game right now.

Like always, thanks for reading, and good luck in your games! I’m happy to answer any questions you may have on my twitter @Random7HS.