2.9.0 Patch Notes for Legends of Runeterra aren’t massive, but some very important changes are still being made. Four cards are getting adjustments, new content comes to the Labs, and some miscellaneous changes will be hitting the game. Overall, I’m pretty glad for some of this, because Malphite is awesome but too hard to play with. There is also a deck archetype that is, for a lack of a better phrase, “incredibly powerful and everyone’s doing it.” Spoiler Warning, that’s Irelia/Azir. It’s such a great deck thanks to the new Blade Dance keyword.

Don’t worry, Irelia’s not getting nerfed, but some content in the deck is going to be changed. Dovagedys spoke about the process of changing cards during the patch notes as well. Riot tries to focus their changes on as many targets as possible and also tries to avoid collateral damage as a result. Making small amounts of changes can really seriously impact the meta, but sometimes this is unavoidable.

In particular, Dovagedys had this to say:

“However, there are times when it’s clear that changes are necessary to ensure the experience is fun and exciting. Taliyah and Malphite are both clear examples that need live design attention. It’s an easy decision to make, because so many of our inputs into the decision making process clearly indicate that Taliyah, Malphite, and their primary deck are not meeting our standard. Irelia and Azir are not so obvious, because there are different inputs that contradict each other and it takes time to gather information to make a decision. In the first three weeks of Guardians of the Ancient we have seen Irelia and Azir’s deck rise and fall in popularity and efficacy. Over time, our decision on whether or not we should make balance changes on the deck has shifted.”

Riot understands the deck is just too powerful, so a pair of changes were made, that hopefully won’t make the deck unplayable. Conversely, they want people to have the opportunity to counterplay against the Irelia/Azir deck. With that in mind, the following changes were made.

Blossoming Blade is seeing a cost increase, but it will also gain +1 to its power overall. This makes it a little slower to play, while also making it worth playing still. Inspiring Marshall also gets a cost increase, and it gains +1 to Life instead of power. This way, other decks like Azir Burn and Azir/Lucian don’t get nerfed into the ground as a result of these changes.

Blossoming Blade:

• Cost: 4 -> 5
• Base Stats: 3|3 -> 3|4

Inspiring Marshal:

• Cost: 5 -> 6
• Base Stats: 4|5 -> 4|6

These aren’t terrible changes either. It just slows the deck down by a turn or so. It slows down this deck a bit without making it unplayable. We’re also seeing some positive changes for a deck or two though! Taliyah/Malphite is a fun deck, but it’s struggling. They want to make the deck a bit more viable, by adding some power to the champions that won’t wildly change them. The aim is to make Taliyah a bit stronger while making Malphite’s Level Up Requirement more manageable. I love the Malphite thing in particular, as someone who loves Malphite/Yasuo decks.

Taliyah (Level 1 & 2):

• Base Stats:
  • Level 1: 2|4 -> 3|5
  • Level 2: 3|5 -> 4|6

Malphite (Level 1):

• Level Up Requirement: You’ve summoned 12+ mana of landmarks -> You’ve summoned 10+ mana of landmarks

Big fan of that Malphite change, that’s for sure. These aren’t the only new things in 2.9.0 patch notes for Legends of Runeterra either. For example, some changes to Labs are coming!

Labs are an awesome way to do new, exciting stuff in Legends of Runeterra. 2.9.0’s patch notes introduce some new champs and more to the system! For example, Irelia, Zilean, Malphite, LIssandra and Fizz have all been added to the starting champ roster. You also unlock a Malphite card back if you complete a run with each. What about Support Champions though? Sejuani, Leona, Yasuo, and Viktor also got added!

There are 18 new powers added to the Lab as well, with 10 Common, 5 Rare, and 3 Epic ones. Taliyah’s deck also got an update, so hopefully that rocks. Riot Games also made some changes to Duo Queue: Shared Spoils! There’s more deck consistency, and players can bring 0-2 decks with them rather than 0-3. This means players will see any decks they bring as options. Players will also get a chance to add their teammate as a friend if they’re solo queueing, which is neat if nothing else.

As far as Miscellaneous Changes go, the Cross-Shard Friend Challenge will end. As the game grows, Legends of Runeterra is seeing challenges caused by outdated tech, and the Cross-Shard Friend Challenge is part of it. These resources are needed for other things coming to the game. Overtime was also adjusted for BO3 matches, and players will have 25 seconds to complete their turn.  There’s a nice list of bugfixes too, which you can take a look at below.

Bugfixes

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Changelist

• Fixed a visual bug when attempting to purchase cards or prismatics while inspecting cards in the Collection.
• Fixed an issue where skin names were formatted incorrectly in some languages.
• Fixed an issue where a Quest had a duplicate criteria for completion.
• Scrying Sands now correctly gives an enemy -2/-0 even if the player casting it cannot Predict.
• Spellshield now correctly blocks Scrying Sands.
• Irelia should now correctly create Bladesurge in hand on attack the turn she levels up.
• Fixed an issue where champions with Barrier would sometimes incorrectly show the wrong keyword.
• Give It All should now correctly raise the power of allies with negative power.
• Moon Weapon should no longer cause spells to overlap in the cast region.
• Howling Abyss should no longer incorrectly trigger Deep or Sun Disc animations.
• Howling Abyss should no longer create invisible cards in hand.
• Vladimir’s Crimson Pact should no longer incorrectly damage allies to his left if he is removed from combat before the effect.
• Several improvements to text across the game in our continued effort for text consistency.

As always, you can see the full patch notes on Riot Games’ website when they go live later this afternoon. It’s a small patch, but hopefully, it won’t completely make Arelia/Azir decks unplayable. People will always say that when a deck is nerfed, but we’re curious to see the actual statistics of its play/win rate post-nerf.