I'm a little lost on what do with this bg recently, they had some pretty hard but probably justified nerfs though the recent Surge gutting seems to have hit them really hard. The loss of Whisperghast, Nether Wraith and Shadestriker scaling off of all those Rift Spirits has cut down the damage dealing options quite severely. Vengeful might work out on Whisperghast but I don't think it will be worth it in an Arroyo bg. I'm going to experiment some more with an SP split but if anyone who has played them since the changes has any pointers i'd be happy to hear them. Pretty sure that midterm we were waiting on was a new Arroyo of some kind now I think about it.
You could probably benefit a Lot from arroyo eyes using replicate. As far as vengeful goes. Beyond that reapers blade seems somewhat necessary now
They are a sp split for sure. Use surge elemental. Not sure if the resistance is still any good. Zemi of the ancients is a good relic though..
Yeah i wanted to keep it as FW as possible, the SP stuff looks good on paper but it just feels better full FW.
[13] Champs 2x Riftlord (Encouraged/Shield) 1x Riftwalker (Rage/Acolyte) 2x Shadestriker (Surge Spirit/Riftbound) 2x Lich Magistrate (Touch/Consume) 2x Leviathan (Vaporize/Surge) 1x Whiserpghast (Distracting/Soultap) 1x Inkblight Witch (Shroud/Blind) 1x Shadecaster (Portal Dancer/Pounce) 1x Wailing Banshee (Siphon/Vaporize) [10] Spells 1x Despoil 2x Essence Drain 2x Execution Order 1x Hungry Dead 1x Mobilization 1x Soulreave 2x Whispers of the Veil [3] Equips 1x BCS 1x Collar 1x Soul Reaver [4] Relics 1x Skull of Decay 1x Banner 2x Arroyo Portal @themacca and I brewed this deck up. It looks nuts, honestly. Edit: Built it:
Basically, you still run a monster Surge plan, you just focus it into three champs run at 2x and repeatedly deploy them. A single Portal escalates into 7 damage on the Surge champs, taking Levi and Shadestriker up to 17 each, and Czar up to 14 (before other champs and Banner); it also guarantees Whispers is always 25 nora for 30 HP. Double Exec Order helps multiply the melee Surge damage. A second Portal shoots the core champion damage into the sky, with 20+ damage ranged champs, and Shadestrikers running at 25+ for 63 nora. Just need to find tempo space for 30-80 nora of relics. Considering that I've been able to manage Statue at the start of every FW game for months, that sounds like a piece of cake.
I tested my deck out again the other day and they do feel very strong still, I'm not sure if Whisperghast has a place in there without Surge.
relocation is still helpful. as is a ranged dot that generates nora and it sets up soulseeker on leviathans too.
I'm aware of the merits of the champ but Eye and Storm Orb can both fulfill those roles for a lot cheaper. The Shadestrike is still useful though, I wish there was more of that in Arroyo.
The idea is to try it 1x as a third ranged champ, but specifically one that has Soultap so that it can setup jumps for Utterdark Levi. Whisperghast with Distracting Blows also happens to be good against caster-type enemy champions. That's the theory, anyway.
The, uh, deck is good. It takes a tad to ramp up, and Riftbound on the Shadestrikers can be a bit awkward, but my god the damage is insane. Execution Order and Whispers of the Veil generate their respective damage and durability, and together they mean that you can back up the value with an incredible tempo game on fonts. You can cast both for 60 nora, which is about shrine plus one font.
