Legends of Runeterra (LoR) was fully released on April 29 this year and has had great success in the card game scene. Today we spoke with ex-Rank 1 Legends of Runeterra player, Aluy, about his experience with the game thus far.

Tell me a bit about yourself for those that aren't aware of you.

Aluy: I've primarily played LoL and Hearthstone throughout high school and college as a pastime, achieving Master-Challenger throughout the LoL seasons and Legend in Hearthstone.

When and why did you start playing LoR?

Aluy: After watching Riot's 10th-anniversary stream last year, I felt pretty hyped to witness an expansion of games by different genres by Riot, especially since League was their only game for a decade. I wanted to try out LoR as a replacement to Hearthstone, and the hype behind it was real. You would see people on Reddit talking about how they constantly refreshed their Twitter page for weeks, every few hours, just to get small updates on closed beta access. I started playing on the first day of season beta, at around mid-January.

What's the highest rank that you hit and what's your current rank?

Aluy: I started season beta as the first 300 masters and then hit rank 1 shortly after because of a unique variation of the Elusive deck, which was very popular at the time. I ended the season at top 500 after taking a break and will return amidst season one.

What's your favorite deck?

Aluy: My favorite deck at the moment (and throughout the last season) is any variation of the Frostbite Ashe deck. The Frostbite niche of the deck gives you infinite possibilities as to who you could or should use it on. Piloting the deck requires you to have sharp intuition depending on the matchup, you could easily end the game by turn four, or stall for late game.

What's your opinion of the current meta?

Aluy: The current meta has arguably improved compared to previous metas due to the addition of the new region and expansion of current regions. This brought at least 5-10 more viable decks that were never seen before and shows that the game is improving. The only downside of the current meta is that the same aggro decks are being spammed to gain easy rank.

Do you think Riot did a good job with LoR considering the other card games that exist right now?

Aluy: I think I am in a love-and-hate relationship with LoR at the moment. The game itself I've always enjoyed, even after playing hundreds of ranked games. However, when I introduce new friends to the game, they are often repelled by the difficulty of the game and often stop playing shortly after the tutorial. I think more interactive resources could be added to help players further understand the game, as the game is more difficult than Hearthstone. Overall, LoR is built better than most deck-building games, and will dominantly remain for a while.

Would you have any tricks or tips for people trying to grind ranked?

Aluy: Limit test. This is likely the fastest way to learn coming from someone who has relatively low experience compared to masters that have played card games for 10+ years. Try to do weird things now and then that the opponent can't predict for the game-winning play. Losses teach you more than wins when it doesn't work out. This applies to other games like League and oftentimes in real life.

Anything you'd like to say to the readers out there?

Aluy: I hope I've helped out at least one person with my sentiment, if anyone wants to hit me up I stream ranked games and coaching sessions at https://www.twitch.tv/aluy and privately on Discord (insanity#4247).

We would like to thank Aluy for his time and wish him a successful climb in the new season.