[Legends of Runeterra] Deck Review: Swain Midrange - Noxian Conquest Methods

Hello guys! I've been playing this game for about two months now and I think it's about time to start making deck review as my level of understanding the game and the current meta is at the point I can share my conclusion that might be helpful for other players to understand and implement this knowledge into their gameplay and deckbuilding. My first deck review will be this Swain deck with a midrange strategy that focuses on non-combat damage and constant poking on the opponent's nexus and getting them into the lethal territory as fast as possible while progressing the level up the condition of the main champion, of course, Swain. There are lots of different tweaks that can be done to this deck to make it more aggressive or more controlling, depending on what style fits you the most. I'm most comfortable in the middle of this spectrum and this is the list I ended up with:

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Champions

Swain is, of course, the centerpiece of the deck. The strategy is heavily focused on dealing non-combat damage so leveling him up to come naturally and really fast in most cases. For a 5-drop he has a decent stat-line with higher health which is even better. 6(7) is harder to remove in the mid-game which makes him really hard to deal with. On top of that, Fearsome limits your opponent's approach to blocking him, and if Swain is leveled up stunning their stronger units often leave them open for Swain to strike the Nexus and wipe their board while also dealing 7 damage in total. There is also a nice trick you can pull-off when Swain doesn't get removed immediately. It involves playing Used Cask Salesman on the opponent's turn and when the turn ends and your Casks exploded that instantly stuns two of their units at the beginning of your turn for an easy Nexus Strike.

Darius is just an additional finisher, that's why there is only 1 on the list. As Swain, Darius is easily leveled up with this strategy of constant poking on your opponent's Nexus so basically he is a 10/5 Overwhelm unit that if you can attack successfully with, you most likely already won the game. It can be tricky to find a good moment to play him because he has only 5 health as a 6-drop he is easier to remove, it is crucial to save at least one Transfusion when you have Darius in hand because it is a Burst spell that can catch your opponent off-guard while they are trying to remove him, while also buffing his attack power that gives you even more reach as a bonus.

Draven is simply a really strong 3-drop. There are no other good champions that could take advantage of the way this deck plays so going for just a strong unit here is all it is. Creating Spinning Axes in your hand are also convenient targets for Get Excited! discards. Using Spinning Axes too aggressively isn't a good idea because there is no draw in this list so if you can't use Spinning Axe by discarding another Axe usually isn't worth it. This, of course, depends on the situation, but it's usually bad to do.

Predictable Outcomes

As already mentioned, the main way this deck is dealing damage is through non-combat sources but still, some of our units need to attack in order to activate their damage-dealing abilities. This gives you a lot of predictability of the outcomes and the amount of damage you will be making each time you attack. For example, every time you attack with Boomcrew Rookie you are going to deal at least 2 or with Legion Saboteur for 1. In some way, this applies to Legion Grenadier as well, even if he gets blocked he will deal 2 damage with his Last Breath, although I gotta point out that using him for blocking is usually more effective. For a 2-drop, he has 3 attack power which is good enough to trade most 2s and 3s while still dealing damage to the opponent's Nexus. Sort of a two for one.

Okay, the damage is "consistent" but what does that help me exactly? Well, it makes it a lot easier to decide what to do with your direct damage spells. Remove enemy units, or go on their Nexus? Only uncertainty left is whether or not your opponent has sustain which is mostly given away by their region choices. Shadow Isles means they most likely have it while Ionia still could run some but less likely. Other regions have some sustain options but aren't used as much. Generally, if you face those with potential heal spells, you should be the one waiting for them to use before you go all out on their Nexus so that you deal damage before they heal and possibly killing them before the heal even has a chance to apply.

With this in mind, it becomes easy to allocate your damage properly based upon what you face.

Mulligan

Our main goal is to play through the early game as efficiently as possible. This doesn't mean we need to spend all mana each turn but focus on maximizing damage output. A lot of units in the deck cost 2 and 3 mana so playing on curve won't be too hard even though it's not something you should worry about. The question is what to play and what to keep in the hand in the first place. Now we go back to looking at our opponent's region choices. If they are playing regions that can easily ping down small units. For example, Shadow Isles with Vile Feast, keeping Legion Grenadier is often a mistake. Playing versus Ionia, especially decks that use Zed or other aggressive champions, you need to keep some kind of removal, such as Mystic Shot or Get Excited! just in case they overextend before they are able to buff him.

One card that really stands out on this list, at least for me, it's Transfusion. This card has so much potential and flexibility that enables you a lot of damage bursts, removal interceptions, and whatnot. This is the card that you should keep in your starting hand every time, although keeping more than one is risky since you also need some units to use it.

Ideal hand to keep is: Transfusion, Crimson Disciple x2, and Legion Saboteur if you are first or Boomcrew Rookie if you are attacking on the second turn.

This hand is ideal because it gives us the most aggressive start possible with a lot of flexibility and bait potential. Unanswered Legion Saboteur is a nice 3 damage start, even if you are forced to trade, you can deal that 1 damage from her attack ability. Crimson Disciple 3 health most of the time stops your opponent from attacking on the next turn if they don't want to take 2 damage to their Nexus. One thing to keep in mind here is that if your opponent saved 1 mana from the first turn and they play regions that have 3 damage removals on 3 mana, you should never play your Crimson Disciple if they skip throwing a unit, just pass yourself and you will have 2 spell mana (Transfusion's cost) if needed in the future turns. Fast forward to a position where you have two Crimson Disciples on the board with a Transfusion or two in your hand, you can do pretty much anything and your opponent will have hard time dealing with it without taking a lot of damage in the process. If they are trying to remove one, you can damage the other Disciple to buff the targeted one, in that way your opponent didn't achieve what they wanted but instead receive some extra damage. This can also come in hand when trading or in any similar situation.

Average hand expectation: Two 2-drops, and at least one direct damage spell (or Transfusion)

If you have more than two 2-drops, you should first look to swap duplicate ones so that you have a more diverse hand that prepares you better for any given situation and never keep Imperial Demolitionist and Legion Grenadier in hand together as those two are the least synergistic cards in the deck.

In case you have your "average hand" already, as the 4th card you should only keep Legion Saboteur or a 3-drop. Anything else doesn't make too much sense. Keeping a second damage spell is only good versus hyper-aggressive decks such as Draven/Jinx or Noxus/Z&P without champions.

Keeping Statikk Shock is more for advanced players that know meta decks and can predict what units they might face. As a general rule, I might consider keeping it versus decks that include Elise or more obvious one, Teemo. I don't recommend you to keep this card in other cases if you aren't too familiar with the current meta lists.

This is it for today's review. I hope you find it useful even though we didn't go deep into specifics. If you have any questions about the deck or anything, please leave a comment below. I'm not yet sure about the format so I might be trying something else in the future, we'll see about that.

Any fool can throw overwhelming force at the enemy. It takes vision to conceal that force until the decisive moment. - Jericho Swain

Thank you for reading!

,z3ll