Leona Go Second OGN

general goal is to force conquer the battlefield of choice, which is usually where the opponent set up (you want to wipe their units) or an advantageous battlefield like Godwillow or Hillock. from there you use Fiora (and Zenith Blade on yellow Leona) to gank and try keep your opponents from reclaiming a foothold. use combat tricks to punch up and take down groups of units, gaining massive tempo, and to survive removal. go second. mulligan for a turn 1 play, ideally not Shieldbearer as you want it to put buffs on units other than itself. FYC is best for the early ramp, this deck is power hungry. turn 2 we have 5 runes normally and 6 if we opened with FYC. most games you play yellow Leona to base here, except against Falling Star which will destroy your tempo - wait another turn so you have more than 1 mana open to save her. assuming we play turn 2 Leona and she can untap with 6-7 runes, hold them up for combat tricks and try take the opponent's battlefield using the stun and spell support. then play other units onto that battlefield, ideally Fiora, and hold up 1-3 mana depending on your hand to safely defend on your opponent's turn. Fiora can easily clean up the other battlefield by herself with some spell support if the opponent tries to take it. if they put significant effort into it, Zenith Blade your Leona across to easily clear and conquer, and hold both with your tempo to win. in a less ideal game, your opponent might get to ~3 points before you can mount a counterattack. luckily we have FYC and green Leona to take back tempo even if the opponent finds a significant early lead. in slower games, you can support Wielder of Water with stuns to clear as many units as possible, though he won't be able to hold very well by himself. don't overextend recklessly, you have time to build up a proper attack with both Leonas, but if you waste resources early trying to break even with weak units you'll run out of gas in the lategame. this deck needs to find a tempo swing and hold it to the end for a win, you won't win games by trading points and resources. wait for the big play, Zenith Blade can completely win a game by itself with the right timing. this deck is designed to match as well as it can into the best decks in my area - Sett, Teemo, Yi, Kaisa (Annie isnt popular here). here's how the matchups go: Yi is fairly straightforward. you want to take early points and try to win before the big stuff comes out, ideally. if he overextends with a Qiyana, take the opportunity to kill her, though remember that stuns have to go through her deflect. sideboard in Salvage to deal with Aurora, and even Mask of Foresight. when you get to the late game, Yi will try to clutch up with a tempo swing using Deadbloom, green Yi, and Whiteflame. you can sideboard the other Hidden Blades to help with these. green Leona is the best way to deal with them - get a stun and she can easily neuter them and clear them out. in this matchup, do your best to hold a green Leona and a Hidden Blade, and use Salvage liberally, it's a great trade with the draw it gives you. i swap to green Leona chosen champion for this matchup Kaisa is more difficult. her removal breakpoints are 5 (Void Seeker) and 7 (Falling Star, Comet). 7 is awkward for us - buffed green Leona and Faefolk are safe, but our primary units yellow Leona and Fiora are vulnerable (Fiora has deflect however which is a good trade for us). yellow Leona needs a buff to be in saving range with En Garde - try hold one in hand for this specific purpose. if you expect the opponent to be holding Falling Star, do not play Leona to base unless you have a way to protect her (this deck can do so with 2 mana open or a Call to Glory spending another unit's buff, like a turn 1 Shieldbearer). Spirit's Refuge is in the sideboard for this matchup, it's rarely a dead draw and adding Deflect to your units absolutely cripples Kaisa. be careful of red Darius + Stupefy or Cleave, it can swing the tempo massively and you'll want a Hidden Blade or Rune Prison to turn it around on the opponent and ruin their own tempo. as with Qiyana, kill red Kaisa if she overextends. Reaver's Row is the bane of this deck so beware it in this matchup. if you struggle to kill red Kaisa on Reaver's Row games and feel the opponent is getting too much value trading conquers at the field, consider running Charm in the sideboard. Teemo isn't too scary as long as you read it well. getting stun triggers on hidden purple Teemo is awkward but as long as you respect it (and the -2 hidden unit) by holding up combat tricks, you should be okay. bring in the Hidden Blades to deal with Mundo. i need more playtest experience in this matchup to go into further detail Sett is scary, he can constantly save his units from your gameplan, which is to stun and kill for a tempo swing. this matchup is a delicate game of reads and knowing where and when to extend. beware of orange Sett's challenge, 8 might is very difficult to deal with for us. don't be afraid to Defy any Showstoppers, it's a good trade into this matchup as Sett doesn't run many threatening spells. also Defy any Primal Strengths, you don't want to deal with this combined with First Mate. also needs more playtest experience Annie is theoretically a very bad matchup for us, with too much removal and tempo for us to keep up with, but i haven't played it at all. theoretically, you hold Defy, Rune Prison, Hidden Blade etc to deal with the Vi combo, and bring in Spirit's Refuge to slow her down with deflect. Viktor has two variants in my area - aggro and control. take green Leona into both. control is fairly easy to deal with - beware of Grand Stratagem and don't overextend to battlefields, i pull my units back when i'm in Watcher range and wait to react to the opponent's plays. aggro Viktor is far more difficult - this deck wants to swing tempo by clearing the opponent's units, but a good Viktor never overextends and keeps the bulk of their units safely at the base. if Viktor is common in your area, you can sideboard Wind Walls to deal with Grand Stratagem, but you're still vulnerable to Watchers, and if you respect the Watchers by hanging back, Viktor will take easy points with recruits without ever overextending. very difficult matchup that i struggle to win. Ahri is scary if she gets a very solid setup early on, e.g. turn 2 Sona. respect Blitzcrank and Charm, if you just play Fiora and Leona to base they'll drag you in and ruin your tempo. try to thwart their tempo with Spirit's Refuge and beware Defy for your combat tricks, it's a great trade for them if it kills one of your key units. difficult matchup that i don't have much experience in will update regularly as i gain more insight into matchups. decklist is open to small changes as i learn and gain more experience. you could run a different turn 1, go first core using Keeper, Poros, and Herder for payoff, but i don't like the curve of 2-0-4-0-5-1 when playing Fiora turn 3. SFD Poros might make this more viable.