Patch 5.1 Notes

Elder Dragon's Origin has been an enormous boon to his decks, easily outpacing the deckbuilding cost of his region. We chose to reduce the health buffs across the board to reduce the amount of survivability, and focus the Boons more tightly to Offensive and Defensive roles.

In addition to the origin changes, some of the followers most common in Elder decks were carrying too much weight (sometimes outside of Elder decks as well). Lowering the power here should help make Elder's Region feel like a larger cost for decks that want it.

We want Morgana to stay useful as a generalist champ, and her power on Level 1 should continue to bind her to a spot in the meta. But with her level 2 also being quite powerful, we want to make sure decks are having to work to unlock her full potential.

While Suppression's spell prevention was an exciting synergy with other curses, it also prevented counterplay in deckbuilding. With this change, a spell-light deck is much less impacted by Suppression, making Suppress more of a metagame choice than a force multiplier on any Curse.

Suppression's most popular generator has been a meta-defining force, offering a potent effect without giving up much on stats. This change should make the Inquisitor more of a question for Demacia decks than an automatic inclusion.

Hate Spike has always been crucial to Evelynn's gameplan, but it's also been doing a lot of work for several other Shadow Isles champions who then end up taking Evelynn's spot. We realized that "Kill an ally to Deal 3" is a card we definitely want to exist, but the Husk bonus was feeling pretty free. With this change, Evelynn gets the current Hate Spike she needs, and everyone else gets a solid (but not quite as variable) removal option.

We think that Yuumi Elusives hold down an important spot in the meta by pouncing on overly greedy decks, but playing against the deck can feel very polarizing. We think this change should take the deck down a bit without fully eliminating it as a healthy meta predator.

While we wanted to tone back the power of Elder's Origin, we still want Elder Himself to be a huge threat - so we're giving him some more direct power. We also tried to buff his Level 2, but he said he wanted to keep his nice, round stats.

Alatis tried to be Gallant about getting nerfed with the Dragon Boons change, but Demacia’s nicest Dragon didn’t deserve quite so harsh a hit.

Adroit Artificer tends to arrive with a lot of fanfare, but her limited presence on the board made her a very feast or famine card. With a little extra health, she should feel better to play even if the plundering opportunities are limited.

Poacher's restriction made him an inconsistent surprise option for Ambush decks. By amping him up, it not only gives Shurima another viable removal option, it should make all Ambush units a little more threatening since they COULD poach you at any moment.

Kai'Sa's power has fluctuated since her release, and while we don't want to make her quite as overbearing as she was, we do think she could use a little more oomph. The extra stats should help give back some of the survivability she needs to improve her KDA.

Barbara should be solid support for any Shurima deck willing to flood the board, but her low health has kept her from the full scale dream. With a little extra boost, we hope she can steal some games (as well as our hearts.)

Nilah's been looking less than joyful lately, but she's still a very solid card. We think this nudge isn't a lot, but should help push her share her joy a little more often.

Udyr's whole deal is Be Big, so we wanted to lean into that. The extra point of health should make him more likely to stick around and stance dance his way to victory.

This card's been a bit of a bait since release, so we wanted to try and make it a more realistic option for Transform decks. It should also make it feel less painful to set off the trap on rounds where you’re missing the attack token.

While the General does a solid job as backup board control for Daybreak, he struggled to trade profitably on his own. With extra power, he's more likely to make an impact when he has the chance to connect.

Nami's rework moved her in a more sustainable direction, but she's still been relegated to the depths of the meta. We want to start giving some power back as we better understand this shape, and hopefully get her to a sustainable level of power.

For Ryze decks, getting Ryze in play means that you are more likely to draw the Delves you need - but if that Ryze dies before winning, it also means you’re left feeling blue at having to spend a bunch of mana to find the next Ryze. This change shouldn't be impactful in most Ryze games, but will lessen some of his most frustrating endgame situations.

Samira's recent nerfs left her Plunder archetype absent, so we wanted to give back some of her power while leaning into the Plunder Reactivation effects that make her followers unique. We started by giving Samira herself a bit more style, then changed Dandy's design to give the deck a dreamier finish.

With Explorers running around, we wanted to give Sun Disc decks a way to recover - if they're willing to pay the cost of reviving the disc (or running extras.)

The old Valley was tough to understand and very powerful at 3c, but too weak at 4c. This change lets us reduce the cost and chip away at the card’s power and complexity.

The shuffle during Predict is a weird rule that doesn't come up often, but does mean that Predict fights with Mysterious Portals and disables Flashbombs. This rule change should make things work more predictably.

Master Yi has struggled to find his flow at 3 cost, so we wanted to try shifting him down the curve. You’ll still need to protect him to build up his late game power, but this change should let you sneak him out safely more often.

While the changes to Divine Whirlwind wind down Janna's meta dominance, it also pulled out the deck's primary method of reach, and had more of an impact than we had hoped. We want to try an alternate change now, and give back that reach in exchange for a higher cost (which plays more into the deck's cost-reducing strengths).