Today we’re going to be talking about Shyvana and Pantheon, two powerful champions that have been buffed in the 4.1 patch. While the nerfs to Katarina and Aatrox and the buffs to Illaoi and her friends have been widely discussed, the update to Shyvana has been a bit overlooked.
Now, Shyvana only needs to have the dragon’s deal damage, rather than seeing all the damage they deal. Additionally, her Strafing Strike card has been reduced in cost to two mana if Shyvana generates it.
So, how can we best take advantage of Shyvana in this current meta? We don’t want to just put a bunch of stats on the board, as that doesn’t really interact with our opponent. Instead, we’re going to be focusing on the Wounded White Flame. This card has had a bit of time in the spotlight, and it’s a very powerful dragon that’s cheap in the curve. This lets us tie into some other abilities, and we don’t have to be all in on dragons since Shyvana doesn’t need to see all of the dragon work at play.
We’re also going to be using Pantheon. This champion is most commonly seen with Varys, and together they make a powerful OTK deck. However, our deck has some definite upgrades that you don’t get out of the Varys version. We have access to a better removal suite, with cards like Single Combat, Cataclysm, and Concerted Strike. Additionally, the Cataclysm has the potential to deal overwhelm damage if we have a 7-6 Pantheon on the board. We also have access to Dragon’s Clutch, which is a nice card advantage engine. Finally, we have access to the Golden Aegis and Blinded Mystic. The Golden Aegis gives us the rally portion of the deck, while the Blinded Mystic gives us a potential silence. This is especially important in this meta, as we need to be able to deal with the Illaoi decks. If we can’t answer the tentacles, it’s very easy for them to get out of hand.
So, that’s the deck we’ll be doing battle with today. We’re combining the power of Shyvana and Pantheon to create a powerful deck that can take on any opponent. With the right cards and strategies, we’re sure to come out on top!
