5 Tips to Improve at Legends of Runeterra

Hey y'all, I'm back with another (sort-of) guide. I originally made this a YouTube video with a bunch of examples, but I'll also leave a write-up here.Link: https://youtu.be/CGB_8M6h_1E

​

1 - Learn all the Cards & Keywords

Let's start off with something for the new players and beginners. The first thing you should focus on is learning what every card does, so that you not only know the boundaries of this game and what is possible in LoR, but also don't have to use your precious time ingame on reading your opponent's cards instead of making decisions.A great way to do this is to scroll through your Card Collection in-game after clicking the "Show Unowned" button. You can also look up cards externally, e.g. in the Mobalytics Card Gallery or on the website of decksofruneterra.

2 - Learn all the common Decks & Matchups

The next important step is to know the meta, which means all the common decks currently running around on ladder/tournaments. The easiest way to do so is to pull up a meta tier list and look at all the different decks. Try to understand their strategy, gameplan and key cards.Afterwards, think about how the decks you want to play match up against those common decks. Which deck plays faster/more aggressively? Do you have answers to their biggest threats? Do they have answers to yours?All of this helps you with constructing a gameplan. You don't only want to know how you can achieve your own win conditions, but also how to hinder your opponent's win cons, so you know how to use your cards efficiently.

3 - Practice (Grind the Ladder) & Theory (Guides)

I would, at first, recommend sticking with one deck you like and try to master it. I would also recommend mainly playing the ranked ladder, as it is generally a more competitive environment and gives you more room for improvement. Then, it's just practice, practice, practice.At the same time, it can be very helpful to look at a Deck Guide for whatever you're playing, or more general guides if you struggle to grasp certain card game concepts or do the same mistakes over and over. You can find guides in any shape or form on just about any topic on YouTube, Reddit, Mobalytics etc. etc. I also have a bunch of guides on YouTube, to which I'll leave a link at the end of the post.One more thing to note: You can definitely one-trick your way to Masters by just sticking with one deck the whole time. However, if you want to be a more well-rounded player, you should also look into trying out some different archetypes after you already mastered a deck (or get bored of it ;D).

4 - Analyze your Gameplay

Be reflective! Try to learn from your mistakes. It's hard to put into words how much more you will improve if you take some time in between games and reflect on the toughest and most important decisions, as opposed to just queueing another game right away.Another great way to augment this process is recording your gameplay. It should be pretty easy on Windows 10 with the XBox Game Bar thingy, but there are also a lot of other options.Whenever you do this, it is also very recommendable to start thinking in probabilities instead of absolute terms. The question is not whether or not your opponent holds a certain card, but how likely is he to hold that card. How much is a certain play going to increase your win-% as opposed to another one?Of course, it's impossible to assess these percentages perfectly. Nonetheless, the better you get at this skill, the more you will improve at LoR. 100%.

5 - Have someone else look at your Gameplay

Whenever you feel stuck and have no idea what you're doing wrong anymore, it can be super useful to get a second pair of eyes to look at your decision-making and discuss it. Some great ways of doing this are co-oping games while screensharing through Discord, practicing specific matchups with a friend, or getting someone to coach you.This can help to find potential mistakes that are blind spots to us. All of us have many automated thought processes which we intuitively assume to be correct and don't question anymore. Therefore, having someone critically look at your "fundamentals" and question them might make you see lines of play you didn't even know existed.

​

Those were the 5 most useful tips I could think of.As promised, here's the link to my other, more specific guides: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYczieqyGiPoXgOiJ3k-S4_jf7iQnFYwo

As this was the first time I'm doing such a type of guide, please let me know if that was actually helpful and whether I should do more stuff like this. Also, if you have any suggestions on future guide topics, let me know :)

Peace.