Hello and welcome to a new deck showcase!
This article is the fruit of a collaboration between Legends of Runeterra FR and TLG. French players were asked to choose between 5 cards that are currently under-represented in the game: Back Alley Barkeep, Smooth Soloist, Legion Marauder, Cloud Drinker and Funsmith. Barkeep came out on top, so today we will show you the deck we created just for him.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to drop by our Discord. With that said, enjoy the article!
TLG’s Barkeep Madness
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Control your opponent’s board and stifle their resources with your infinite value, before killing them with good old Ledros.
This deck is all about generating value, of which your primary source will be Back Alley Barkeep. The first one you play will create a random card from regions in your hand. Each subsequent Barkeep you play or summon will give you one more, leading to a value snowballing effect that will make sure you are never out of answers to whatever the opponent is doing.
Since the cards you get are random, it will require a mix of skill and luck to get the best out of them. The major upside of having a game as balanced as Legends of Runeterra is that you will generate good cards most of the time. Your first goal during the game will be to set-up your first Barkeep, preferably with a way to clone him in hand.
The deck is filled with control tools that will usually ensure you don’t get overrun during the early game, meaning you can afford to drop Barkeep on Turn 4. Elise will also allow you to take over the board early on and alleviate the pressure. If you don’t draw the Barkeep before Turn 4, keep cycling through your deck and focus on controlling the board until he arrives.
Once Barkeep hits the board, the fun begins. As he’s rather frail, he will be removed, or traded with a unit during a block. From here on you have several possibilities to clone him:
- Sacrifice and resurrect him with Chronicler of Ruin
- Play Mist’s Call during the turn the Barkeep gets removed
- Play Scribe of Sorrows to generate a new one (everything else that died will reduce the odds of getting a Barkeep)
- Use Fading Memories on the Barkeep before he gets removed (only if you don’t have another way to clone him or another copy in hand)
After the second or third Barkeep, you might struggle to make room for new cards in your hand. But that is a good thing! Just make sure you end your turns with 9 cards in hand, you wouldn’t want to overdraw and lose your Ledros, as he is your main win condition after all.
Now that you have a ton of cards at your disposal and ways to refill your hand in no time with the Barkeep, you just have to stall the game and keep answering your opponent’s plays with cards from your starting deck and from the Barkeep. When the opportunity arises, play Commander Ledros as many times as necessary to kill your opponent. The deck also includes Atrocity for the usual one-shot combo.
If you truly want the full Barkeep Madness experience, you can try out this second version, which is much more unstable, but can lead to absolutely crazy games.
TLG’s Barkeep Insanity
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In order to play this version of the deck, you need to sacrifice a lot of early game potential by cutting Elise and Vile Feast. The Spiders generated by these cards can hinder Scribe of Sorrows or Mist’s Call procs. To mitigate the loss, we include Thermogenic Beam and Get Excited! as additional removal tools.
Rummage will also let you cycle quickly through your deck, so you can find your precious Barkeep. This card fits the deck really well, as it can also let you recycle the bad cards that Barkeep could put in your hand.
Whether you’re more of a Madness or an Insanity player, if you’re looking for a cool deck that will test your ability to adapt and manage your resources, you should definitely give Barkeep Madness a shot (pun very much intended)!
Here is a video from Taytwo38, showcasing how the deck plays out. As this whole article was born from our partnership with LoRFR, the video is in French. An opportunity for you to sit back and appreciate some Barkeep Madness gameplay, while listening to baguette gibberish.