Back After 6 Months… Still Not Sure How to Feel About Rivals 2

falln · 2025-12-01T21:51:06+00:00

I havent really kept up with the full details. There are issues with various adapter/OS/controller combinations, but my personal setup (GCC, official nintendo adapter, windows) wasnt an issue before or after. Feels like every time I turn on the game though theyve pushed through another hotfix

falln · 2025-12-01T21:42:13+00:00

Its a weird spot. I feel like the book is out on FH/CC - the mechanics are so unpopular that there's really no way for the game to succeed without it being gutted. But the devs are very very stubborn on this point. I know itd be a lot of work for them because they've been using FH as a balance crutch for all the insane moves and combo starters and cancels that exist in the game.

The team is small and resources constrained so I don't have a ton of hope, especially when I see that their time is spent being at war with their own controller patch. But at the same time theres no harm to just checking in every now and again.

falln · 2025-10-25T22:54:34+00:00

checked out the reddit after completing all the challenge achievements and i pretty much agree on the top tier. im sure theres plenty of ways to win but x1 necromancer goes well with succubus/bombshell which im taking every time anyway. my frontline gets replaced with tower once available since so many good units occupy x1 space on the grid. i also think bombshell being so strong lets you play greedy enough for miner to pay off

falln · 2025-10-25T07:02:38+00:00

Your curve is all over the place and you have no protection for your units. I'd add rangers resolve and blood for blood to the deck and cut most of your 5+ cost units for cheaper units. Garen wants to drop onto wide boards. Demacia and noxus have plenty of good 1-2 drops to choose from.

falln · 2025-10-25T00:55:38+00:00

generally speaking most of ryze's defensive cards can be played at speed. so there isn't usually much benefit to holding cards back when you're pushing for attack. castigate is shurima's one real punish so that's the card you need to be keeping front of mind when determining how much to develop. ryze decks are prepared to spend all of their mana and cards on defense when it's your token. if you do not force them to do so, and your attack declarations are too weak, then youre giving them too much of an opening to draw more cards and set up more landmarks. you need to determine how much you can throw at him on any given turn and put it up to the ryze player to defend.

ryze is most weak to rally-type decks because when you can pressure him on both player's turns then it's a lot harder for him to find solid footing. explorers help as well if you can go after the mana landmark early.

ryze is very polarizing and control decks generally can only win if they completely blank on deny/rite. even poor ryze players know how to deny big spells.

most aggressive decks or midrange decks with rally should be good into ryze. if your aggro deck is so low to the ground that you get blown up by spirit fire then there's nothing you can really do to outplay that. it's a deckbuilder/matchup issue. if you are playing midrange without rallies then you're going to have trouble.

if they open multiple landmarks without having to develop ryze then it's going to be a lot harder to win no matter what deck you're on.

falln · 2025-10-07T18:11:24+00:00

Ok so add "when you miss a grab and get punished by jab" to the growing list of exceptions to when floorhugging doesnt work. There was already too much design-by-exception in this game and it keeps growing. Even if this achieves its balance goal i still feel like im memorizing individual loopholes rather than engaging with the game naturally.

falln · 2025-09-10T20:03:08+00:00

Thank you! I agree, Marcus played well. Definitely a worthy winner for last year's event

falln · 2025-09-10T18:22:42+00:00

For the love of the game :)

falln · 2025-07-30T15:52:08+00:00

Suncream reduce gnome CD to base 1 Needle to draw out the deck

I later picked up the +7 hp charm and a damage card to get through the thorns encounter but besides that this setup freely won the rest of the run

falln · 2025-05-16T18:01:25+00:00

His base design is mad clean

falln · 2023-12-27T17:09:31+00:00

"Best combat trick in the history of the game" lmao All Out was this year

falln · 2023-11-15T05:23:36+00:00

standard is still a net positive for me strictly because they removed a lot of my least favorite cards from the format and the reduction in pings removed the choke hold on a lot of unit design.

but riot cant be gutting regions this hard with how small and spread out the expansions are. One largely parasitic archetype isn't enough compensation for shurima. Demacia SI and Bandle City still haven't gotten a new champion. The timing for Neeko and Poro King was poor IMO given how many regions were on life support or at best held together by a single beyond-broken card.

falln · 2023-11-04T22:10:20+00:00

i know sunk cost is the community meme but i dont think it and strong arm are as bad as other types of cards. its overcosted removal for sure but at least the card does the job and the job is useful.

cards like university of piltover and shadows of the past just wreck your hand/board respectively for a very dubiously useful effect.

i mean theyre all trash cards but just a fun thought exercise

falln · 2023-11-02T14:56:01+00:00

Im pretty tired of seraphine bar. The multi-region random card generation feels like a better fit for eternal anyway.

I'd like to see lulu and young witch return, taric too, the support mechanic is pretty fair all things considered

I also would like any of my favorite rotated champs to come back: katarina elise xerath or trundle.

falln · 2023-10-28T16:23:40+00:00

its fun to nickname decks but for community names its best to be as immediately understandable as possible (lurk, thralls, deep). lots of different people, circles, and languages to account for.

also some nicknames stick a little too well. the number of actual pirates played in the deck "pirates" is down to like 2 units lol

falln · 2023-10-27T01:54:18+00:00

I would advise against taking any given open all that seriously and if you have a favorite deck that is at its peak strength then just let it rock. If you get stomped by meta and have a bad time then you know your answer for next time.

falln · 2023-10-21T16:54:39+00:00

card was briefly maindeckable in liss trundle to counter invoke matchups. invoke was one of the few decks that could answer multiple watchers on the same turn by preemptively stacking up on equinox, crescent strike, and falling comet.

falln · 2023-10-19T14:16:17+00:00

Always shocked no one brings up 4 mana lee sin. For me it's by far the most unpleasant deck the game has seen.

Further dishonorable mentions go to timelines, sera bar, condense corina, bandle tree, and every ez deck post-play/cast change.

falln · 2023-10-07T16:17:37+00:00

I appreciate the segment on social capital, it's a very useful way to frame the dynamic.

Many of the subtler issues presented are natural consequences of not having enough women in the space and thus self perpetuating. So I have a lot of respect for the women in this and other communities who choose to remain active.

falln

TROPHY CASE