The Champion That Defied The Odds - Katarina's Rise To Glory

An in-depth look at Katarina and her rise to glory in 2022.
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Snnuy, Mogwai, MajinBae, GrappLr all play Legends of Runeterra. Ranked, seasonals, the best decks, deck guide, new event and new decks. LoR is a card game based on League of Legends champions.
League of Legends and Legends of Runeterra Katarina, a deep dive on the assassin that pentakills teams in a blink of an eye. Why is she so bad in Riot Games cardgame?
Legends of Runeterra is a 2020 digital collectible card game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by the physical collectible card game Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone.
#lor #LegendsofRuneterra #Snnuy

[@zwiebeldogs]

No matter the art style for his thumbnails, her bazonkas are reliably massive. We love good continuation

[@misteltein3420]

Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well

[@travisprescott9708]

Is the artist one of his editors?

[@LuckDown]

@@travisprescott9708 if I don't recall badly it's his girlfriend

[@lmaoth3208]

@@LuckDown I hope you got it right dementia sucks dude

[@FootballHead825]

hell yeah

[@misteltein3420]

Started with desintegrate, ended with Gwen. Kat just received supportive cards she needed.

[@johnpurgent4422]

Its interesting Darius and Garen have never seen viability despite all the support card attempts. Braum is the opposite where just giving him 1 power and he is viable.

[@MarianaBello-fq3hx]

@@johnpurgent4422 Darius just had a decent deck in the start of the year before hotfix. darius freijord bone cub was something.

[@novaseer]

@@johnpurgent4422 Problem for Darius in particular is he has literally no unique effects, and is just a stat stick. He's a follower in a champions' trench coat, and desperately needs a rework of some kind.

[@zamla14yearsago]

​@@novaseer and that's not a problem, nothing bad for being a simple champion. Not every champion should have difficult level up condition with strong 2 level.

[@reyalfa18]

@@zamla14yearsago there's being a simple champion like katarina and garen are, them who still have effects unique to them, while Darius is legitimately just a big stat stick that is barely even used to finish games because there are followers that do his job even better.

[@LycanDreams9159]

I like how katarina was slowly buffed up to relavence without anyone knowing until it was too late to notice the signs. Almost like the perfect assassin. By the way amazing video I love the editing with the background and the crumbling paper effect was really cute.

[@peschionator7873]

This is one of the best examples why I am most hyped for the variety patches. A bad archetype usually only needs one or two good support cards to (re-)surface in the meta.

[@Lightmagician60]

the Few Support cards and Empower gave lulu new life

[@annakarollunaeu]

We Will need more cards for deep then

[@justmustard56]

What i love about those long videos is that you are documenting the history of this game. Recently, Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic the gathering, deleted the history of their game and many people cried. Thank you for keeping the history of this game and this community alive.

[@Snnuy]

i'm glad you see it that way! i've moved from looking at current metas and instead took an interesting meta or champion that changed in the past like with the seraphine video too. It's much more interesting to get the full picture instead of saying "kai'sa is broken right now"!

[@justmustard56]

@@Snnuy i loved this concept because everything is intertwined. A change in a card today, may lead to something interesting in the future, as other changes accumulate. Please, continue telling stories, continue documenting, continue having fun and enjoying what you do. You are diamond in this community and we are so luck to have you.

[@Chickensea10]

It's incredible how so many small changes can lead to so something amazing like this! Can you guys even imagine what could possibly be next in this new season coming up with all the amazing new add-ons! CROSS THOSE FINGERS FOR CUSTOM TOURNAMENTS WOO! Hope one day arrel and so many other underutilized cards come back in a impactful way!

[@poorguy2839]

It’s not as small as you think. The only true competitive deck for kat is red gwen. Red gwen is good not because of katarina but because of its cards being really good in general and synergising greatly with rally. If we still had the rally cards untouched in demacia and a buffed lucian or untouched vayne then the deck would be better with demacia 100%. What really happened is that right now kat is the best rally option therefore making her the best choicebfor hallowed decks.

[@elijahkleinman1332]

@@poorguy2839 Sunburn is also doing quite well right now in the meta, and I've been winning on Yasuo Kat. It's true that Kat is the best way to rally right now, but going Noxus also gives these decks a lot of great aggro tools in addition to the rally. You wouldn't be able to play Solari Soldier, Crimson Pigeon and Golden Aegis in the same deck.

[@ReigoVassal]

Just like YGO where old irrelevant cards suddenly became a staple due to new released cards

[@Malacite]

It's also a great example of elegant design, and why it's important to maintain design space so you can include future cards that will enable older ones that have struggled. I've long argued that a big problem LoR has is how each expansion introduces new mechanics and then doesn't really do much to further them (Nightfall being one of the most egregious examples). It's much better for the long-term health of the game for Riot to ensure all archetypes are at least functional before adding in new ones.

[@Stachelbeeerchen]

Katarina hasn't changed much. Its just that she is a good glue for some of the newly released cards

[@xtalpax902]

Its not "her" to be broken, it's the cards she can play with that "allow" her to be strong

[@BraveLilToasty]

So in other words she is broken, because if she isn't they wouldn't have picked Katarina in the deck..

[@sirultor648]

Literally the other way around

[@peschionator7873]

@@BraveLilToasty Not how I would frame it. It's more likely that the cards that make Kat decent would see play without Kat than Kat would see play without them. Through that lense the original comment makes total sense.

[@travisprescott9708]

@@BraveLilToasty A card doesn't have to be broken for you to want to put it n our deck.

[@Marshall_K]

Editing was fire!

[@moek25]

Different kinda video, amazing tbh! Very quick to the point, fun and very insightful! Congrats Mr.Sun, can't wait for the 2024 Kat video

[@arthurlago1007]

Great editing, writing and story telling. Keep them coming Snnuy! Love your content

[@nightstalker_7276]

Wow this video is really good. The script, the edit, the information and how you’re delivering it. This is amazing! I’d love to see more videos like this from you snnuy. Keep up the good work

[@leadinthepenstudios]

Holy cow sunny! This video is actually amazing fs worth the wait

[@TheRoguePlatypus]

I love these informative/narrative meta videos, super good stuff

[@edwardluke334]

Pog video, once again snnuy kills it with a video! So weird how indirect changes can bring forth a monster.

[@panchos331]

The edition on this video is ok another level! Love it

[@joshwilliams6537]

this is amazing content -- well edited and such a thorough analysis. thank you~

[@yourdunkedon7059]

Today I hit masters with the kata/Leona deck you shared and never would I ever thought that combination of champs would get me too masters

[@Viciousotk1]

I think that the most notable change is how much hp cards have now. That makes cards like mistic shot or get excited kind of worse, while "execute" cards like desintegrate or flock better. This makes noxus the best región to remove big hp treats by combining 2 cards. This makes the dagger pretty usefull, while before, you cant kill a ezreal with it, and wasting 2 cards in a 3 hp unit feel dumb. Now you have a 10 hp atrox that revives every time, then makes sense doing it.

[@jaytorrent5177]

Wow it's incredible to see how far your content has come Snnuy. It may be silly, but I was tearing up at the end of this video from how wholesome and fun the editing was :D

[@DustD.Reaper]

Kats rise to glory was a perfect example of "being at the right place at the right time"

[@Wuhaboo]

More like being with people that don't appreciate you to ones who deserve you

[@Vorpalien]

That is excellent content. Please keep it up, we love it ❤️

[@taba1506]

The fact that I tried lor a long time ago and wanted to play katarina because she was my main in lol but couldn't since she was bad and then got back to the game after a few years to find out she is now broken is amazing

[@lindetwin]

such an amazing video showing katarinas journey to become meta.

[@austertcg6112]

This was a fantastic video essay

[@user-ye5kn7yi1h]

I think the Katarina video was the first one I saw from you. I've been watching ever since. ❤️

[@ParkerH22]

Hell yeah buddy. Great video!

[@serendipity4346]

I love the style of the video, like a documentary, good content!

[@peterbrot5765]

realls cool video, looks very well edited thanks

[@Sage_6reen]

Brilliant work dude. The scene is better for having you

[@premiummediocre2499]

that's such an interesting video and i would say a great example of butterfly effect not a direct hit but a bunch of other non-related changes that led Katarina to her glory thanks for your work!

[@Despresso-ht6ce]

Banger video once again

[@jolteonthecat]

Banger video sunny, you're the LoR goat

[@thekoolkiwiii]

Props to the artist man, unsung hero of this very well done video.

[@K9QM3]

Interesting video!

[@aozakiaokobestgirl306]

Well I played her a lot in 2020 so I'm happy she's getting some love now

[@1sdgg5as499]

You missed the first Katarina buff, actually. Her first version didn't even create the lvl 1 blade's edge. They added that later for... tempo "Trying to use her early can be ineffective as her self-recall leaves you too far behind in the game. In addition to improving her resonance, her new ability should both up Katarina’s power in her current decks and allow her to be played in a wider variety of strategies." They were super correct, just too early

[@nabilfhoul9505]

Cool vod sir

[@morkk5945]

Oh my god the thumbnail

[@cavaliercanzone2277]

An amazing Snu video

[@sdwiky322]

i love your analogy was with mario kart 😂

[@xerzay2342]

What a beautiful video

[@victoriaduan6766]

Amazing video! Love how crisp and fun the editing is. Can I ask how to get the bobbing effect on the cards when they appear?

[@kierantheninja3008]

What an interesting way to describe tempo. I always thought of tempo as how efficiently you and your opponent can interact

[@fernandporciole9589]

I love these videos

[@etheron1235]

Well that changed a lot after your video made about her

[@GrimmGeist]

Sunny: Everyday I get bullied by Noxus. Lady, who's playing him: 😯

[@DontEatSmurfs]

Snnuy at his peak when he is a loremaster

[@BenStrandberg]

Omg THANK YOU! I thought I was taking crazy pills with nobody else seemed to be annoyed with noxus control. Noxus has been so dominant in the meta for so long I hate it 😭

[@jakoby256]

Misleading title. She's not "broken" outside of the Gwen shell. That archetype simply offers her everyhing she needs. In the targon variant with Leona she's actually far less oppressive ( although still strong against certain decks that can't answer her properly ). Outside of these two decks, she's still a nearly unplayable champion.

[@evansteele3162]

She's a rally on a stick, the core of her design is inherently polarizing. Kata can never be 'good', she's either amazing or useless, and as more cards get printed the odds she is amazing grow more likely

[@JohnnyElRed]

Yeah, that's the problem with her. She doesn't really work as a Champion. She doesn't have any Followers that sinergize well with her. She is entirely dependant on being a support for other decks with other main Champions that work well with her archetype.

[@jakoby256]

@@evansteele3162 Yea exactly, that's why saying "she went from X to Y in a year" is bs. She simply found an archetype that can easily use her rally effect, that's all.

[@Stachelbeeerchen]

Katarina is an awesome glue keeping decks together.

[@ethanalspencer7294]

It turns out infinite scaling zero cost 2/1 (then 3/1, then 4/1, then 12/1) every single turn at only the initial investment of '3 mana summon a blocker' is, in fact, pretty fucking stupid (numbers are multiplied exponentially if Viego's former fleshlight is on the field) Wow! Who knew! How interesting how cards can get better just by some 'slight meta shifts' :)

[@kwan8247]

I think the problem really is foyer. Ephemeral decks usual don’t attack on round start, giving you ample time to react to it. And foyer fixes just that.

[@ethanalspencer7294]

Its funny because Hallowed was already a perfectly fine if not powerful archetype before foyer released. Ruined reckoner was literally nerfed the same patch they released foyer. Now its just laughably degen shit

[@travisprescott9708]

@@ethanalspencer7294 I wish they would've reworked reckoner in a way it's good in sion decks but not as powerful in other decks.

[@zanosolfox]

they trying to make sapling toss good, so might as well make a permanent landmark of it + adding hallowed keyword on it.

[@sollyzcrown]

Top tier stuff as always, but I've always wanted to ask you boss, do you like sugar?

[@CadoxD]

Hmmm.... That Morgana fiddlesticks at the end... Smells Like a prophecy

[@kglibs]

i love how the community’s like not complaining about her despite having probably more than 15k+ games in over every server and just thinking like she deserves that, she deserves the W

[@SingerOfW]

Yasuo/Katarina was my go-to deck when I first picked up the game, while Gwen was pretty much the sole reason I picked the game back up after a two-year hiatus. While I'm obviously biased on this whole situation, I still hope that whenever the deck does get nerfed, it can retain everything that makes it fun without becoming straight-up unviable. Which I suppose what everyone wants their deck to be - it's pretty difficult to look forward to my favorite champions getting added when they can either land with a flop or be good for a month or two before ending up as the nail that sticks out the most.

[@gatitoasustadoo]

Well, that is something that you must do every now and then to keep the game entertaining, changing the meta

[@viljums]

Hype!

[@griffinhatchling]

And don't forget infinite rally with the dancers.

[@GandalfTheSilver]

The hallowed mechanic paired with the never-ending value from opulent really pushed her over the edge. And then if you try and get greedy withholding blocks, Gwen can tick you down. Red Gwen is crazy right now. Maybe they could make her leveled up form blades edge cost 1? 4 mana for a quick attack unit+rally is already premium, I think the cost reduction was just overboard.

[@danielbarnes1241]

I'm so tired of Noxus, Ionia, and Shadow Isles being the top regions always. Meanwhile Freljord is only allowed one good deck a season which almost always get nerfed before the others. This balance patch better go crazy because I can't wait til April just to be disappointed

[@JoseDorda]

Very cool video actually explaining card synergies and current strenghts of the card, I wonder how Riot is going to nerf it without erasing it irrelevant ot the game again, touching the stats is a nono, so I guess they are either raising the mana cost of the base card or taking away the free blade.

[@magiwastaken]

Been loving the scripted content! You absolutely obliterated this video. Damn, this was worth the wait! Keep it up!

[@rodrigonarvaes7032]

Amazing video, Snnuy. Do you think the Katarina nerf is coming?

[@nikolowolokin]

oh its a runeterra vid

[@Vesarra]

So, this video's pretty good as a breakdown, but I do want to offer a small bit of criticism regarding the definition you give for Tempo. While I get why you ended up where you did and I think your conclusions on what high tempo cards are is accurate, I wanted to give a little insight into the term and where it comes from in card games. Tempo derives from 'temporary', things you only have for a limited time. Specifically in card games this tends to refer to resources you get every turn that get wasted if you don't spend them. In Magic the Gathering this is usually attack steps and mana, and LoR is similar with this primarily being attack tokens and mana, though LoR also adds Fleeting and Ephemeral cards as well. This contrasts permanent resources, like cards in hand or units on the board, which remain available until something happens to change them. So, a Tempo deck is looking to make the most/best usage of their temporary resources, often at the cost of permanent resources. You are correct in saying that Disintegrate is a tempo-positive card, but this isn't because it progresses you towards winning the game. It's because it's 2 mana to kill anything. Let's compare it to Vengeance for a moment. Vengeance costs 6 mana to kill a unit, Disintegrate costs 2, but Disintegrate also requires you to play another card alongside it to do anything. So, say your opponent plays a 5 cost unit. If you Vengeance it you're going tempo-negative, you've spent 6 mana to answer a 5 mana card. But if you played Disintegrate into Vile Feast then you're tempo positive, you've spent 4 mana to kill a 5 mana card AND you get a 1/1 spider as a bonus. But you've spent two cards to destroy the opponent's one card, so you've traded card advantage for tempo. Inversely, you can get the opposite happening in the case of something like Vengeance where the opponent plays a unit then plays some buffs on that unit, then you spend one card to kill that unit and they lose the value of all those buffs they just played. Sometimes this also is tempo positive as well as value positive. The reason I bring this up is because it makes the reason cards like Opulent Foyer are so good in Kat/Gwen more clear. Opulent Foyer isn't just a card you play because it advances you towards winning the game. It's a card you play because it ensures that EVERY TIME you gain the attack token you will have a unit to attack with. If you were to play Shunpo on a board with no units, the rally effect would be wasted. But if you have an Opulent Foyer in play, you get a 2/1 ephemeral that can then use that attack token so it isn't wasted. It also makes it more clear why Crimson Pigeon used to get run in the deck, as it grows every time you use an attack token, turning a temporary bonus (attack tokens) into a permanent bonus (unit stats). Strike Up the Band is another good example of this, as it trades mana for 2 ephemeral units that permanently increase your Hallowed bonus by 2. This is also part of why the deck's only card draw is Glimpse Beyond (aside from the fact that Noxus and SI just don't have great card draw otherwise), because the low mana cost is so valuable as a way to squeeze as much into every turn as possible. I know this might seem like a nit pick, but I feel like it's important to understand why a deck gets classified as a 'tempo' deck instead of an 'aggro' deck or a 'midrange' deck or 'control' deck. It helps both classifying new decks, and understanding how to make decks fit together when building. Sorry this turned into a bit more of a wall of text than is reasonable.

[@amateurishauthor2202]

when I saw this video popped up, I was guessing that it was due to Rallies being nerfed, and being nerfed again? yeesh, that archetype can't catch a break (even though it's one of the best archetypes I believe) and I'm glad to know that I'm right.... partially. Wouldn't have guessed Gwen, but I could definitely see Annie's Champion Spell. a 1 damage spell becomes an infinite damage spell

[@menikinaka]

awesome video! Thx for the hard work

[@NearAir]

League’s poster girl is Lux

[@clarencealger8380]

It's kinda funny seeing the World Champion streaming the finals... in his bedroom. 😅

[@Blackfirex-yv8uu]

When video about invoke arhetype?

[@LuckDown]

Oh god, what was the 8:07 music? Update: I've found it: it's the ost from the boutique of Pokémon X/Y

[@aliosm.v7231]

I desperately want the same to happen to my beloved Vladimir.

[@SloppyWalrusX]

mursuBOOBA thumbnail

[@dannysticka]

I feel like the games balance is pretty good. The only deck I hate facing is atrox. I don't mind facing red Gwen. I always hate facing atrox though. I think its cool old cards gaining life without a rework. It's nice to see. There's probably some combo out there that no one has gotten down that's really good. There's so many combinations and it's beautiful.

[@Ronan-ht6jc]

I'll take a thousand Aatrox games against a single Serafiend game, tbh

[@matheusreidopedaco]

Red Gwen gives me Azirelia vibes and this triggers my PTSD. There is no way to interact with the deck, you just watch as you get absolutelly demolished at turn 4.

[@Mekaizer]

Katarina is the example of a card who release too early. They didn't know they will use "when you have the attack token" or hallowed. Because if they know it Katarina will maybe different

[@Lightmagician60]

meanwhile i'm playing Pink Gwen for the Black Flame and Blades

[@okidoxb4846]

soooo about that infinite kat dagger combo whats the deck for it and how do i pull that off?

[@jerometolentino1678]

shiny kata honkers

[@sincronyk]

the thing they should nerf really is hollow from gwen, it wont dissappear and the more units with hollow you kill it just keeps going until it becomes unblockable

[@tranvu_fgc]

what music did you used at 4:00? its very i've def heard it wayyy before but cant remember the name of it :/

[@caseysailor9301]

Braum wll be a card soon, I believe :prayge:

[@MrShadowbquick]

How do you get that many blades edges at 6:51? :o

[@murkel7634]

"Blocks become compleatly useless because you're defending yourself from ephemeral attacks and quick attacking units with a billion attack" So all they had to do was turn Katarina decks into Azirelia, my favourite quirky deck i was so devestated to have (RIGHTFULLY) sent to the shadow realm.

[@juanc.pernas1762]

Ayo the thumbnail?

[@sethmichener9871]

Tbh I called Foyer being busted when it came out, infinite hallowed stacks? Seems good with overwhelm

[@austinstevenson3226]

I specifically clicked on this video because of Katerina’s gadzonkerinos

[@rykerising1409]

So Katarina didn't summon a blade on her level 1 at first this was added later and barely moved the needle. Just thought it was an interesting point that was missing from the video.

[@pauly___]

I'm disappointed that your song wasn't used at the end of the video! >:c

[@lightfeather7948]

6:00 I just wanna take pride that i had a semi working kat yasuo deck before it became popular. So I'm technically the first

[@Derzo]

what if hallowed hitting nexus resets the hallowed stack counter 🤔

[@dyingpentas]

Ionia will stand!!!

[@Wuhaboo]

Kayle is here to continue kata old legacy don't worry guys.

[@claudemirp2772]

Now you need to do a Video about yasuo to make him playable too

[@Snnuy]

yasuo is actually pretty good with windswept hillock (and katarina) meta call because he's mostly good vs midrange and big units

[@Makri.1]

Rally hice video

[@beexxxy]

tbf i hate katarina since she came out it annoyed me me people said she's bad and needed a buff cus i knew if she get just a slightest of power or just one viable synergy she would be broken

[@princex8797]

7:19 Why you didn't attack with the ephemeral unit first?

[@Snnuy]

because it has 1 health

[@rex9412]

I think the dagger machine isn't really what she is in league. she is THE reset champion dashing every 0.1 seconds constantly. she looks for an opening and takes it to delete everyone. my Kata main friend says most of the time he can't 1v5 but 2v5 to have someone else to draw attention and increase the chance of an opportunity to go in on. I think it is actually perfect for her character. kata can dash so much that she can still manage to dash in a fucking card game lol. it's fitting I think. her ult isn't her thing like it is for Samira it's just another source of damage in her kit. most of the time the passive damage does the most of of anything from experience of getting domed by her.

[@apenasumbotp7788]

Now make a video on TK so he gets buffed