So You Want To Play in Champ. League? Pt. 1

Hey all! Hyde-20 here and I'll be dropping a few of the meta lineups that you'll be seeing in Champion League. You'll often see them being used even by leaderboard players in Diamond and Champion League due to their high winrates and dependability esp. on the rulesets where they shine the most.

A little bit about me. I started playing in Late July 2021 and since then, I managed to grab leaderboard spots from Bronze-Diamond League and hopefully by this season, grab my Top 40 spot in Champion League. My highest ranks are Top 3 in Silver and Top 3 in Gold with Main Event Tournament experience from Zensport's Bronze Esports League up to Bulldog's Diamond Bash under the account 'unitqm'. I'm looking forward to the future of the game and enjoy it further as the meta continues to evolve.

Without any delays, let's begin:

CHAMPION LEAGUE META LINEUPS PT. 1:

A. Kraken Sustain Combo

This lineup is a favorite especially in <25 mana matches. It incorporates the use of Kraken and Supports like Kelp and Merdaali Guardian to ensure that the Kraken survives any status effect or damage. The lineups also perfect when going against sneak spam. lineups or even magic lineups due to the immense sustainability and retaliate ability of Kraken. I typically play this lineup with a bortus since one of the hard counters of this are pure magic lineups since they go through Kraken's armor and straight into his beefy hyde (Hehe get it? Hide= Hyde lol jk).

If there is still a spare mana left, people do sometimes throw in an Albatross who gets a Tank Heal at Level 6 bringing the total heal of Kraken per turn to a whooping 12 HP healed per turn. AND IF there are more mana and you wanna risk it in higher mana matches (27-30), I'll add in an Ice Pixie or probably an Angelic Mandarin as well. Why Ice Pixie? Because if the opponent uses a Kraken lineup as well, Ice Pixie would always attack first before Kraken which triggers Shatter. The opponent's enraged armorless Kraken will attack your armored kraken and in the retaliate battle that'll occur, the odds of your Kraken winning will be higher unless RNG smacks you in the face and the enemy Kraken's retaliate triggers. Bringing both of you down. But hey, at least you got a better shot with Ice Pixie :P Angelic Mandarin is for shutting down Full Magic lineups along with Bortus if I think the enemy will go full magic.

Weakness: You rely too much on the Kraken. If the Kraken goes down, it's GG. Stuns and Affliction that goes after Kelp's cleanse can cripple the lineup badly due to Kraken not being able to sustain anymore. It is also weak to pure ranged lineups since like I said, the Kraken is just pure meat. No shield nor void to reduce damage taken so it can be bursted down by pure selenia lineups or even sneak comps in enrage/divine shield rulesets (You won't be able to retaliate enough when Divine Shield+Protect combo is used).

B. Llama Stoneshifter Orc Combo:
*Credits to @altumns for providing me with the sample screenshot

This one is PERHAPS the best lineup that you could use for 13/14 mana poison rulesets. Llama Flesh? Orc beats it. Llama Hydra? Orc beats it. Llama Mercenary? Orc beats it-- unless RNG is a b*tch and all your attacks miss. The strong advantage that this dude over other melee Llama combos is the fact that he gets the enrage ability. So as seen in the screenshot, he hits like a TRUCK. 12 damage per hit and if he retaliates, that's 24 damage in one turn which is enough to take down Flesh or Hydra. Orc feeling lazy and he doesn't heal? Next turn you're gonna be sure to strike first with that 9 speed when enraged so you're bound to win it anyways.

Weakness: This lineup is very vulnerable in non-poison/armorless ruleset due to the fact that you don't have any sustain or a form of damage reduction. Only use it when you're sure that the enemy's going for Llama Flesh/Hydra or else you can lose to selenia+crustacean king/griffin lineups which can stall your hits long enough for the hitters to kill you.

Tip: A fungus fiend + Orc has a higher win % over an Orc with chicken. In 14 mana a Mycelic Morphoid+ Orc wins over the aforementioned units. Bottomline is that the Orc who attacks first loses since by the time the enemy Orc attacks, Orc #1 has no armor anymore when Orc #2 attacks either due to retaliate or turn order.

C. High Mana Poison Life Triage Sustain

This is a strong lineup for Poison Rulesets due to the fact that almost every unit won't die to poison even if they don't have immunity due to the number of Triage that you have on your team + Bila sustaining through life leech. It can take down Llama Cube or even Llama Kron which is amazing. I haven't seen this lineup lose yet to high mana poison matches. You can find a simpler variation of this which utilizes Chanseus and Shieldbearer instead of RDK and Byz. Kitty. So why did I use this variation instead? Because the Chanseus Variation loses to this lineup due to the fact that you attack faster, you soak up damage harder, and your RDK heals up with Byz. kitty. Even if Chanseus lineup resurrects Shieldbearer over and over again, your magic units will cheese through that measly Shieldbearer real quick compared to that chad RDK.

Weakness: The lineup is weak against amplify lineups due to the fact that you're mostly using magic units. One reflect+poison at the end of the turn will hurt or kill your units pretty easily before they can even heal up next turn. Since we are not running shieldbearer too, your units are easily picked off by opportunity and sneaks which can decimate your backline FAST AS HELL. So it's up to you to pick your poison. Play it really safe and use Chanseus lineup OR counter the Chanseus lineup with the RDK+Byz Combo.

D. Death Redemption Combo

Hated by many, loved by many.

This lineup is a REALLY REALLY common. Majority of my low-ish death battles especially armorless rulesets are fought under this lineup. The only deciding factor is how you counterplay your opponents. Some people uses Thad instead of Owster for the extra -1 hp BUT I am always one step ahead so the Owster variation is a counter to the Thaddeus redemption combo due to the extra magic reflect + your x3 weaken from Blight/Undead/Death is enough to take down enemy units. It is very simple. Reduce your enemy's HP by Three (3) RIGHT AT THE START of the match and then watch them hit Cursed Slime and Alchemist for an instant -2 HP. That's like -5 HP to all enemy units already without your units even attacking. If there's any enemy left surviving, they'll be at the mercy of your team + a Dr. Blight with bonus scavenged HP. There are also times when people use Life Sapper for the additional redemption.

Weakness: Sneak units will f*ck you up really bad. All of those weaken and redemption are only useful IF the opponent will attack you in front or with a snipe. Attack you in the back and they'll be nothing but fodder as a feral spirit or pelacor mercenary takes their time from behind ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) jk. Sorry kids. Your weaken gonna be taken off one by one and once they hit the redemption, their HP are already back up making redemption ignorable. Divine Shield rulesets can also nullify your effectivity to a certain extent due to one of your redemptions being rendered useless. Same goes for double Protect lineups. Other than that, it's mostly up to how you guys counter each other's redemption lineups. Some would even put a Monk in the bank or even a Haunted Spirit just so they have a unit that survives the initial redemption assault (Take note that you can only take down 5 HP at best with a full redemption lineup assuming that the enemy don't have an armor).

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So there you have it. Those are only four of the common effective lineups that you'll be seeing in Champion League. They posses a really high win rate and having them in your arsenal can get you some good wins. I hope to write another article like this showcasing other lineups which are definitely effective like the mylor+mycella combo and the Chanseus+Shieldbearer Sustain lineup (Non-Magic Variation). I do hope that you guys picked up a thing or two from my article and I wish you all good luck. Keep grinding and keep trying out every league that the game has to offer. The gameplay and meta just keeps on evolving as you move another step higher. Happy playing!