Top 6 New Decks of Day 1 of Patch 3.16

Hello everyone, Patch 3.16 is finally out, and players quickly picked up the buffed cards and went into the experimental phase.

The new patch nerfed popular decks like Ezreal Kennen and Miss Fortune Twisted Fate. At the same time, the patch gave buffs to underplayed cards in an attempt to bring them back into the meta. Cards like Swain, Sunburst, The Leviathan, Tahm Kench, and Fiora all received buffs that gave them a shot of making a comeback.

I kept an eye on the competitive ladder and popular streamers to find the new archetypes that have been successful on the first day of the new patch. Here are the top 6 decks that performed relatively well on the first day of Patch 3.16.

---

Twisted Fate Swain

Twisted Fate Swain was one of the most played decks on the first day of Patch 3.16. This is an old archetype that fell out of the meta as new decks were introduced to the game. Swain was power crept and eventually couldn’t keep up with the new mechanics of the game.

This exact list featured in today’s article was piloted by SaltySimon. He managed to maintain a 16-game win streak, not dropping a single game on his run with the deck!

Both Swain and Leviathan received buffs in the latest patch. Leviathan now costs 7 mana, which allows you to play him a turn earlier than what you’re usually used to, and to compensate for the mana cost reduction, Leviathan lost 1 health and a damage ping to the Nexus.

As for Swain’s buff, the champion had a 1 Power increase and now gets the Overwhelm keyword on level-up! The Overwhelm is a strong addition to the champion as it makes it much easier for you to trigger his Nexus strike effect and allows for a more aggressive game plan.

The deck runs a lot of removal cards to help keep the board in check while you work on leveling up your Swain. Twisted Fate is a great inclusion in the deck for his Destiny cards. The Red and Yellow cards advance Swain’s level-up and synergize with your Swain to stun the opponent’s board.

The deck runs a lot of card draw to make sure you don’t run out of gas and at the same time threaten to level up your Twisted Fate if not dealt with.

Late game, your game plan is to set up both Swain and Leviathan on the board and stun lock the opponent. From there, you deal a lot of Nexus damage once most of your opponent’s blockers are stunned and unable to block your Swain.

---

Master Yi Lee Sin Targon

Since his release, Master Yi has never really performed well on the ranked ladder. All of his decks were below a 50% win rate. But Patch 3.16 gave the champion a boost, allowing him to permanently reduce the cost of a spell in hand.

Alanzq played Master Yi Lee Sin Targon on the first day of the patch, holding a 75% win rate. That in itself is spectacular, seeing that Master Yi has struggled to perform decently in different archetypes in the previous patch. Alan even went to the length of adding the words “Yi” and “broken” in one sentence.

Master Yi Lee Sin uses both champions as a win condition. In the early game, you’ll need to set up Master Yi on the board to take advantage of the mana cost reduction on spells in hand.

Later on in the game, you’ll have to slap an Overwhelm keyword on your champions to turn them into a threat. This is where Iula or Ionian Hookmaster come to play. Iula can grant a unit either Overwhelm or Spell Shield. Depending on the situation, you’ll pick which one is best. As for Ionian Hookmaster, she can potentially Improvise into FishaWhack that can be later given to one of your champions. Ionian Hookmaster can also provide Upcycled Rake that gives the Scout keyword, which can be powerful on your champions (Lee Sin kicks twice!).

The deck runs a lot of protection tools such as Momentous Choice, Wuju Style, Deny, and Concussive Palm to keep your champions safe.

---

Leona Galio

Both Leona Galio and Leona Aurelion Sol showed up on the competitive ladder and the decks held up pretty well.

Leona’s redesign takes away her Overwhelm keyword and gives her the Challenger keyword instead. On top of that, her new ability to get a Barrier makes her a strong mid-game champion capable of killing important units on your opponent’s side of the board.

The deck takes advantage of Daybreak units to level-up Leona and start stunning the opponent’s board. Rahvun, Daylight’s Spear empowers your Daybreak effect, allowing you to activate it multiple times per turn. This can be a tremendous advantage if you have both Rahvun and Leona set up on the board which turns your opponent’s defensive turn into a nightmare.

Having Galio in the list means you want to try and keep as many units alive as possible to get more value out of his summon effect. The additional health gives your units an extra layer of protection and can set up to level-up Galio,

Once leveled, Galio can activate Rally each round, which will accelerate your aggression late game, allowing you to demolish your opponent’s board with your buffed up attackers.

---

Fiora Pantheon

Players tried pairing Fiora with different champions, such as Shen, Taric, Master Yi, and Pantheon. Fiora Pantheon specifically tries to keep Fiora alive on the board in an attempt to fulfill her win condition while also working on the Pantheon level-up.

The mid-range deck focuses on targeting a unit once per turn to work on leveling your Pantheon as soon as possible. Fiora’s stat buff turned her into a nuisance mid-game, capable of killing weak units without the need for support cards. However, you’re able to work on her win condition when supporting your champion with Equipment from either The Darkin Lodestone or Wandering Shepherd.

Guiding Touch, Pale Cascade, and Chain Vest all help keep your champion alive and threaten to win the game on her own. Eventually, your opponent will be forced to commit their valuable resources to kill Fiora if they wish to stay in the game.

Single Combat and Concerted Strike are essential tools to kill off key units on your opponent’s board that advance their game plan. However, those same removal tools can advance Fiora’s win condition, accelerating her ability to end the game.

Iula’s ability to grant Spellshield is the perfect protection tool for your champions. Moreover, the Overwhelm keyword can come in handy for your Saga Seeker if you manage to buff his stats up to a point where he can act as a win condition.

Once Pantheon is leveled, it’s time for him to hit the board. The more keywords he can generate the better! Pantheon, along with Golden Aegis, can dominate the board and end the game if your opponent doesn’t have a way to deal with him.

---

Caitlyn Swain

The Tri-beam Piltover and Zaun version of Swain was also popular on the first day of Patch 3.16. The deck runs a lot of damage spells like Mystic Shot, Aftershock, Thermogenic Beam, and Piltover Peacemaker that help level up Swain and turn him into a win condition with his Overwhelm keyword.

Caitlyn offers a strong early game, she’s capable of putting early pressure while also planting Flashbomb Traps in your opponent’s deck. Those Traps could either kill their units or damage them enough for your spells to pick them off.

The list runs a lot of 3 mana cost cards that help stack up your Tri-beam Improbulator. The Tri-beam can be a huge tempo swing, allowing you to kill off a unit while also summoning a unit on the board. It can potentially set up for a strong swing and push Nexus damage.

The final goal is to set up the lock stun with Swain and Leviathan, paving the way for a strong swing at the start of your attack turn.

---

Elise Nocturne Noxus

The Elise Noxus aggressive deck shifted towards including Nocturne in the list after his buff in Patch 3.16. The Nightfall champion can now level-up off of Fearsome attackers, and Elise Noxus has a bunch of them! Nocturne can level-up quickly with the help of cheap Fearsome units like Precious Pet, Stygian Onlooker, Arachnoid Horror, and Elise.

Your game plan is to set up a wide board and start swinging for the Nexus! Nocturne can come down late game, and with his Nightfall ability, he can prevent many of your opponent’s units from blocking your Fearsome units.

You thought Nocturne was scary? Wait till he’s leveled! His ability will allow you to lower enemy unit’s Power by 1 for every unit you play on the board. This will set up a wide board of Fearsome attackers while removing the ability for your opponent’s units to block.

After the Decimate nerf, a lot of the lists have cut out the burn tools and adopted a more unit based win condition which Nocturne can take advantage of.

The Decimate and Noxian Fervor cut means players were able to explore other regions to splash some cards in the list, many have went the Shurima path to include cards like The Absolver in the list which can catch your opponent off guard with the Overwhelm damage.

---

Closing Words

The first day of the patch has been hectic. Many old archetypes have been showing on the competitive ladder.

Nami Ionia seems to be gaining more popularity. The deck managed to dodge any nerfs in the latest patch, meaning it’ll remain as one of, if not the best deck out there in preparation for the seasonal tournament.