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There is no greater symbol of Noxian might than Darius, the nation's most feared and battle-hardened commander. Rising from humble origins to become the Hand of Noxus, he cleaves through the empire's enemies—many of them Noxians themselves. Knowing that he never doubts his cause is just, and never hesitates once his axe is raised, those who stand against the leader of the Trifarian Legion can expect no mercy.
The Noxian leader strikes fear into his foes while rallying his allies as a senior commander, which is fitting considering he combines the aggression of Fury and the unified assault of Order.
Both domains feature solid units combined with cost-effective removals. Then, it is no surprise to see its representative emerge as an aggressive midrange legend, aimed at quickly seizing the board and looking to end the match before the opponent can reach its comfort zone.
Hand of Noxus is an energy rock that lets you add another energy if you've played a card prior, meaning that you can play the entire game with one more energy than your opponent. However, this also means OGN-253 is forced to play two cards per turn to make use of its ability.
In that context, the legend almost sole strategy is to play in a rush, as to end the match before our hand inevitably becomes empty.
Against aggressive foes, this tends to a strong ability. Indeed, the extra energy allows OGN-253 to be explosive early, and quickly get on the board, often forcing its opponent to adopt a reactive role it isn't designed to assume.
Matches against control oriented decks are a bit trickier, as the opponent knowns from the get-go their goal is to exhaust our hand before we reach eight points. With that in mind, it is up to OGN-253 to find a way to snowball, and develop too much for the opponent to be able to keep up. Early in a match, adding one energy equals a 50% or 25% increase of our total pool. Yet, the more the match progresses, and the less impactful the ability becomes.
Refined Darius Deck
Budget Darius Deck
Darius Signature Cards
OGN-027 has emerged as a staple unit, most of the time included in multiple copies alongside OGN-039 in most Fury decks. The card isn't fantastic on its own, but its ability to grow to 7 might and move twice every turn is huge to anchor the mid-game and force the opponent to focus on removing it before it can snowball.
OGN-254 and OGN-243 aren't bad cards, but simply don't compare to other available options, meaning they aren't seeing much play in the current metagame.
OGN-243 unfortunately doesn't fit the current play style of OGN-253, far from a token based strategy to instead look for strong units on their own. The 6-cost could be considered as our chosen champion while we run three copies of OGN-027. It is actually something you can do through the side deck of the refined build featured above.
Yet, OGN-235 tends to be preferred as the default option in the 6-cost slot, her buff being more flexible to use.
OGN-254 suffer from the same fate, often being cut in favour of the cheaper OGN-213. Once again, it isn't out of the question to run one copy of the signature spell, but most players typically use OGN-029 when they look for more removal.
Four is a lot of runes to invest, and would limit OGN-253 too much for that turn. Indeed, the legend is looking for very cost-efficient spells, both because it focused on mid-sized units and due to the legion keyword requiring to play two cards per turn.
Darius Staple Cards and Synergies
OGN-242 has become a key card for OGN-253, using the gear to summon 5 or 6 might units and accelerate in the early to mid-portion of a match. To make the most of OGN-242, it is crucial to understand how to reach 5 might with any unit, allowing to fetch OGN-234 or OGN-235 from our deck :
- OGN-294 buffs any unit there, meaning OGN-012 is 5-might at that location.
- OGN-016 grants +2 to any unit, turning any 3-might unit into a target (OGN-217, himself, or any 2-might unit at OGN-294)
- OGN-036's might is quite simple to manipulate with its ability, so we can easily grow it to 5 if need be.
The other synergy to keep in mind, a not so intricate one this time around, is the Legion keyword. Because of it, OGN-253 wants to play two cards per turn whenever possible.
First, this means we need to have a good amount of card draw available to avoid running out of gas early in a match. OGN-039 will be essential in that regard.
Then, this synergy will heavily impact the way we play a match. Indeed, managing to trigger Legion from a card will make it stronger than a typical card at the same cost. With that in mind, we want to trigger Legion multiple turns in a row to overwhelm our opponent with those enhanced cards, rather than space them out and alternate strong and weak turns.
Consider the Legion keyword a small boost. Our goal should be to add those boosts over a short period of time to destabilize our opponent.
