J4 DISENGAGE

Keeping our CC alive is very important for our game plan, not having the ability to play our gears at action speed makes the deck very predictable. So even though it's tempting to conquer with him to channel an exhausted rune early in the game, sometimes it’s better to keep him waiting in base for a later turn when we have a bigger board and more energy to answer to what our opponent sends at us.

Now let’s talk about our Legend Ability, this is what makes this deck so interesting to play. The reason we need our CC alive is because it let’s us use this ability not only offensively, by letting us double conquer with units like J4, Qiyana and Nidalee to channel exhausted runes and draw cards, but also defensively, by making our opponents commit cards and resources to one battlefield for us to swap to the other battlefield and conquering it if we don’t control it.

J4 is a power-hungry deck, our most important units cost power, our spells cost power, our Legend Ability cost power, and our signature gear cost power. To counter this the deck tries to overcome it by playing 2-drops that generate power and gold, and 4-drops that channel exhausted runes on conquer. We also try to overcome our colors lack of draw by playing cards like Trifarian Captain, Nidalee and Qiyana. 

CARDS

Battlefields:

• Game 1 - Hunter's Circle: A great battlefield going first or second since we don't have to control it to use its effect to play our deploy gears and our ambush units in it. It combined with our Legend Ability makes our 1-cost gears amazing for moving units with no energy left.

• Going first - Targon's Peak: Amazing battlefield for going first since it gives us a lot more options to respond to our opponent, even when we spent a lot of energy in our turn.

• Going second - Ornn's Forge: Similar to Hunter's Circle, since it lets us play our deploy gears discounted with the downside that we must control it. But if we do control it, we can play them discounted to any battlefield, not only on itself.

Units:

• Sneaky Zeebles: Our best turn one unit, since it lets us play either J4 or Qiyana on our second turn without falling behind early.

• Trifarian Captain: Great unit in general that helps us always have a gear in hand for our Legend Ability or Nidalee in case we need more draw.

• Honest Broker: We spend a lot of power, so having gold is always good.

• Nidalee, Cat Form: In these colors we need all the draw we can get, and this card’s ambush effect works well with Hunter’s Circle, plus she’s great when going second. If you feel like you don’t need Nidalee’s combat abilities, you can swap her for Kinkou Initiate for more consistent draw.

• Qiyana, Victorious: Unit with a really good and versatile conquer effect and deflect, most of the time we play her instead of J4 on our second turn if we are not sure if we can protect him.

• Skystrike Squadron: Amazing card that makes sure that we always have a gear in hand, and it has amazing stats and effect for its cost when we do it.

• Rengar, Trophy Hunter: He’s just good, especially on the first game when we combine it with Hunt’s Circle, we can later take out one copy when we side deck.

• Vi, Peacekeeper: Great in combination with our Legend Ability on our offensive turns, but not as good defensively as Rengar. You can swap her for Kennen for a cheaper alternative, but I like her better.

Gears:

• Pillaged Armory: We love 1-cost deploy gears in combination with our battlefields and this is the best one, always keep it in our opening hand.

• Concert Poster: We exclusively play this gear because of its cost so we can play it for free and use our Legend Ability. We almost never activate its effect to play recruit tokens unless we have some spare energy, which almost never happens as well. 

• Demacian Standard: Having one of these deployed on a battlefield makes attacking into it so much easier, so sometimes even if we hold the battlefield we don’t return it to our hand if we have other cheaper gears in hand. Remember that it only gives you +2M if you are an attacker, so take that in mind if you combine it with your Legend Ability.

Spells:

• Punch First: Staple orange spell. Makes passing with one energy a nightmare for our opponents.

• Sabotage: Knowing what our opponent has in hand so we can play around it is amazing for us, and getting rid of an annoying card is always good as well. 

• Repulse: We always feel safe when we have it in our hand, great to counter Star-Crossed like cards and effects that directly kill our units. 

• Hidden Blade: Sometimes we need to kill a really important unit and our might isn’t enough. It can also make us draw two cards if we are looking for answers.