In League With the Legends of Runeterra - Kinkou Elusives and Rivershaper Fiora

While it's been nearly a month since the last time I talked about Legends of Runeterra, I've still been playing it regularly. And as my interest in Magic the Gathering: Arena's current standard declines, it's begun to take up the slack as my new "primary" digital card game.

That doesn't mean Magic: Arena gameplay is going to stop, but it does mean that it'll be slowing down for a time, until something shakes up the current meta.

With that said, I'm head over heels for Runeterra. It's such a breath of fresh air.

The decks I play with are taking from the meta tier list at MobaLytics.

If you're interested in running them yourself, the codes to import them are below:

• Kinkou Elusives: CEBAEAIBAQLAWAICAIDASDARCULSQLBSHEAACAIBAIYQ
• Rivershaper Fiora: CEBAGAIAAMIS2BQBAIBCKKBLGE4QEAIBAIGAIAIAA4ERUJICAEAQALACAEBAIKI

It's hard to overstate how generous the monetization model for this game has been. A large part of what keeps me coming back is being able to take a look at the top decks being played, and almost always having enough shards and/or wildcards stocked up to be able to build it and test it out to see if I want to play with it long term.

That's not to say that I haven't dropped money on cards, but that I've dropped far, far less than I have in other games (less than $20 total). I've definitely spent more on cosmetics than I have on actual cards.

And something I also noticed is that individual matches go by quickly in Legends of Runeterra, but not too quickly. This is something I've been having a problem with a lot lately in Magic: Arena due to the current Standard: Either matches end with the first three turns, or they devolve into a slow, halting grind as both players try to out value the other. This game manages to straddle the line between the two extremes quite comfortably.

On top of that, there's a lot of decision-making going on in any given match. Because damage persists on units, and defending players can only place a single blocker between themselves and attacking foes, combat, and maneuvering around combat with tactical thinking and reactive spell-casting, becomes a much greater focus that in Magic. The result is a ton of interactivity between players a depth that I don't see very often.

It just makes me want to dive in more than I already have.