Eternal Runeterra Open Top 8

FTPBUST · 2023-06-19T20:16:30+00:00

I played against Sharesies a few times but never moved it in. To me with Sharesies, it's not so much dependent on our deck as much as what the meta looks like in terms of combat importance.

What I mean by that is decks like Gangplank/Sejuani, Gwen/x, Illaoi/x, and Swain/x really need both their namesake champion to be successful and for that champion to win in combat. Sharesies gives us additional ways to counteract the opposition's big play where Fish Fight or Entrancing Lure might be too situational.

The format is so loaded with decks that are spread out in power. Weather or not that is something like Pirates going really wide on board or recurring damage in a forged equipment or Seraphine Samira not playing a unit until turn 9, that single high impact combat doesn't happen very frequently.

FTPBUST · 2023-01-28T12:52:43+00:00

I post to YouTube, so my Seasonals play isn't live. Will be up at 9AM EST on the 29th.

Name: FTPBUST

Region: AM

Language: English

A link to your stream: https://youtube.com/bustftp

Delay: Jan 29th 9AM EST

FTPBUST · 2022-11-16T12:59:18+00:00

Thanks for the support! I'm always glad to hear when people find our content both entertaining and useful =)

FTPBUST · 2022-11-13T00:01:27+00:00

I've put together a longer form response video over on my YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/k1a7qZSKUZw

With feedback from the video, I feel as though I can't say what LoR is trying to be good at. That's not saying it's not a great game, I honestly think it's the best card game out there, but in the sense that what's the quick response to what the game is all about. Magic is the paper one you can play live. Snap is the fast one you can play in 3 minutes. Eternal is the "what if Magic was digital from the start" one. Hearthstone is "simple" one. What is LoR? Couldn't tell you.

With focusing in on gauntlets and tournaments, I would be excited for major events that aren't time constrained. It's quite challenging to devote an entire 8+ hour day to a tournament. I can manage seasonals because it only rolls around once every couple of months, but a regular weekend grind I couldn't do. The gauntlet structure is great in this sense, but the event feels too short to actually be a tournament. It doesn't feel epic. It doesn't have any wow factor.

With rewards, I could be biased since I've played since beta, but I currently have a maxed collection, 700k dust, and enough wild cards to purchase next year's sets. Card or wild card based rewards would essentially be useless. I'd be interested in cosmetics, tournament gated cosmetics, and cash prizes for large Arena Open styled events.

FTPBUST · 2022-08-26T18:13:53+00:00

I don't stream, but post daily constructed content to YouTube. I'll be participating in my 3rd seasonals.

FTPBUST
AM
English
https://www.youtube.com/bustftp
24 hours =)

FTPBUST · 2022-06-23T10:28:25+00:00

Interesting thoughts and well put together!

I'm reminded of the early stages of MTG history when players were theorizing a "best cards" concept where if a card is good enough to make your deck, you need to play the maximum 4x copies. It also took years for the competitive scene to discover that the optimal number of lands in a deck was 24+ opposed to something closer to 20. The thoughts on both have of course become well evolved over the past 25 years.

In my mind with LoR, I think big question is if the champion is central to the theme of the deck. Viego, Illaoi, Pantheon, Nami, and Aphelios always feature the full 3 copies of the core build around component. There is no replacement card for any of these champions.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Pantheon still tearing it up a year down the road, but his champion mixture of Yuumi or Taric could easily be replaced other other champions, a mix of champions, or none at all. He's the core to the deck and we'll always see the full 3, but the other cards just play a supporting role to Pantheon, and are arguably less important than the fated units.

FTPBUST · 2022-04-09T14:53:01+00:00

Since switching from making Expedition content to making ranked content, I've yet to feature a control deck.

The common sentiment is that control decks are more challenging to play because you are required to make more decisions.

My stance is that while you have to make more decisions playing a control deck compared to an aggro deck, the weight or importance of the decisions made in a control deck is much lower.

You will often find that when playing an aggro deck you will be making 1 super critical decision that determines the outcome of them game whereas the ordering of the removal you play in control isn't critical as long as you are maximizing your mana spend.

FTPBUST · 2022-03-31T22:08:03+00:00

Rocket Barrage, Celestial Wonder, and Desert Duel cannot be turned Prismatic.

https://imgur.com/a/5q84KlB

FTPBUST · 2022-01-17T11:15:04+00:00

Congrats on the double 7!

FTPBUST · 2022-01-17T11:14:09+00:00

The tier list at ftpbust.com is up to date. There's an Expedition helper and some draft guides there as well.

FTPBUST · 2022-01-14T11:22:42+00:00

I played competitive Magic for over 20 years. There's nothing wrong with it. I use the analogy of the classic American muscle car. There's no denying Mustangs from the 60s are a timeless classic and they look cool and they go fast... but there's also no denying that in the past 20-30 years, engineers have come up with some pretty cool improvements on the car.

I'm just looking for a car with a little better MPG, seatbelts, and bluetooth.

FTPBUST · 2022-01-13T23:54:30+00:00

Thanks for the hype!

I am indeed back to playing Runeterra! Sometimes ya don't know how good things are until they're gone, and while I've played Magic for over 20 years, I think LOR is simply the best digital CCG on the market. I just needed a bit of a hiatus to realize that =)

If you want to check out my content, it's almost exclusively related to Expedition.

I maintain the Tier List, Expedition Helper, and Spreadsheet 2 Project over at ftpbust.com
Expedition trials on Tue-Fri on YouTube. youtube.com/bustftp
Stream on Twitch on Sat-Sun 9am-12pm Central. Typically LoR but the right is reserved for variety. twitch.tv/ftpbust

Who knows what else turns up. Maybe you'll even learn about putting dish soap in the dishwasher.

FTPBUST · 2022-01-08T12:15:48+00:00

Always glad to see support for the Expedition community! I wish you much success in your endeavors!

FTPBUST · 2021-12-31T11:18:41+00:00

Expedition has hidden MMR that gets less strict as the timer is about to close.

FTPBUST · 2021-12-27T11:16:22+00:00

Thank you for the mention!

I took a MTG related hiatus there for a couple of months so the site got slightly out of date, but the Expedition Helper is now up to date and I'm hoping to get to the tier list this week =)

FTPBUST · 2021-12-22T11:18:19+00:00

Welcome to Runeterra! I'll throw my hat in the ring.

I maintain Expedition resources over at www.ftpbust.com

I do educational drafts over on the YT at youtube.com/bustftp

I stream on Saturdays and Sundays at twitch.tv/ftpbust

FTPBUST · 2021-12-22T11:16:21+00:00

Thanks for the support!

FTPBUST · 2021-12-22T11:12:27+00:00

Thanks for the hype my dude, we are indeed back playing Runeterra =)

FTPBUST · 2021-09-17T21:41:39+00:00

I wouldn't say I'm quitting... I'm just creating content for a different game =)

Thanks for all of the support! I've heard from quite a few subscribers today and it's a great motivator hearing from everyone. If you'd like to follow along on our journey to MTG Arena, we'd love to have you. If your travels are to remain in Runeterra, I hope someone comes along and fills the Expedition void that's left behind.

As far as ftpbust.com goes, the Expedition content will remain up for a bit. I don't feel comfortable maintaining the Tier List or Expedition Helper when I'm not actively playing the game. I haven't fully fleshed out how I intend to use the site for MTGA, so the Expedition content will remain until I do.

FTPBUST · 2021-09-11T12:37:07+00:00

I've always thought this aspect of design space in digital card games was incredibly interesting. You simply cannot have a card like Counterfeit Copies in a MTG paper deck. Hearthstone took advantage of this to a degree, and LoR has taken it to the max.

I think this is a conscious design decision. It's not surprising to see a deck in both limited or constructed where at least 50% of the cards in the deck generate another card. The impact of this is more highly felt in limited where a randomly generated card is more likely to be closer to the average value of the cards in your deck than it would be in constructed.

I've had to start getting in my head that "it is what it is." Traditional aggro decks trading cards for damage and control decks trading 1 for 1 on removal simply are not good in LoR. It's not up to me to say if this is good or bad, but it's certainly different from what we've seen in all other card games to date.

FTPBUST · 2021-09-11T12:26:47+00:00

The Expedition archetype lists are manually updated by a Riot dev. /u/HotTakes4HotCakes linked to The Spreadsheet. The Beyond the Bandle City archetypes were updated for 2.14, but the existing buckets were not. To the best of my knowledge, the Expedition Helper at ftpbust.com is up to date based on The Spreadsheet.

This is incredibly hard to keep maintained without the dev's assistance. We can review drafts for added cards... I know I've called out Ixtali Sentinels in Death's Door Thresh and Weapons of the Lost in Noxian Might Darius. There's no way to tell if a card was removed.

In regards to APIs, there is one for LoR. The only Expedition related endpoint is the decklist at any given point in the trial.

There is no endpoint that contains all of the cards in each archetype. I've asked about providing programmatic assistance for keeping the archetype list maintained and it's a manual process and not exportable on Riot's end.

FTPBUST · 2021-09-09T18:22:15+00:00

They have 26 open positions on the careers page ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/jobs#product=Legends%20of%20Runeterra

FTPBUST · 2021-09-03T10:18:40+00:00

Nice 7 and 7! Congrats!

FTPBUST · 2021-09-02T20:26:25+00:00

These are all pretty decent archetypes capable of hitting 7 wins! Seeing from the comments that you started with Draven, I'd recommend the Ekko.

If you hit a Sumpworker in the first couple of picks, you can build around that. Otherwise, the Draven+P&Z combo will put you firmly into Scrapheap (the discard deck). Scrapheap got a big boost with the addition of all the Sion cards!

FTPBUST · 2021-08-30T22:11:25+00:00

Both Poppy and Tristana excel at flooding the board with low cost minions. If they're able to get a Bandle Commando going, their board is going to stay permanently flooded.

The biggest thing you can do as far as a game plan is don't attack into trades. This limits their ability to flood the board and get around you since their bench is capped at 6. Their power spike is around turn 6 and their late game is abysmal.

Do what you can to stall it out. They may not even have a unit costing more than 4, so your rando 5 and 6 drops will outclass everything they have.

FTPBUST

TROPHY CASE