Runeterra Deck: Leave no stone upon stone! Patch 2.11.0

TL;DR: try to gain board control with early units and Blade of the exile until you can drop Battering Ram, then Cataclysm/Rally until something explodes.
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This is my take on the J4/Battering Ram deck. Your principal wincon is to grow your Ram as much as you can and make devastating blows in one or two turns with two to four attacks in total. EDIT: this deck has recived quite some improvements with patch 2.11 which buffed both Riven and J4, along with the adittion of Field Promotion. It's still a tier 2 tops but is super fun to play it, so check the last section for the new ideas.


BASIC GUIDE

In early you have defensive options like the Fleetfeather Tracker/Brighsteel Protector package that allows you to eliminate early treats with impunity. Also Blade Squire and Runeweaver will reforge so you can create the BotE quickly and get some muscle to block. You don't need to cast it necessarily in Riven: followers like the Laurent Protege or the Trifarian Gloryseeker will give it just as good use*. But if the game goes slow enough you can put a lot of pressure with it: in fact you want your enemy to target the one with the blade because it leaves more comfortable plays to your TRUE win condition.

In the side of spells cards like Culling Strike and Sharpsight can eliminate more tricky units like the ones with elusive or quick attack. Just remember to not waste them if you can clean the board through combat alone: we don't want to wide as much as we want to go strong. If you have problems with swarm like aggro you can set the board for Radiant Guardian. WARNING: this deck doesn't count with direct strikes like Singular Combat or Concerted Strike so don't get creative with her. **

Talking about challengers don't mulligan Grand Plaza because it will allow you to: 1) make optimal trades with your 1-3 drops and 2) enable your Battering Ram to enter in board with the most efficient damage possible by challengin the enemy with the lowest health. So if you can take the early damage against faster decks its entirely recommendable to just play it, especially if you have already one or two allies on board.

Now, let's talk about your big boy: Battering Ram can easily drop the enemy nexus in a few strikes. Cards like the new Golden Aegis and Cataclysm turn an otherwise slow follower into an absolute monster with just two or three swings, shutting down the game with impunity thanks to his Nautilus tier health. Your challengers can open the path for more clear strikes to your Ram (btw you won't level up Jarvan very often so don't count with his created Cataclysm: if you have the shot you take it***).


EDITS

With 2.11 a lot has improved for this deck but I don't want to rewrite the whole thing down because I don't speak english that good lol, so here are some new ideas:

* You still don't have to cast BotE on Riven BUT with the newest patch things gets funkier: one new line of play is to cast Field promotion onto Riven, so every time you gain the attack token (like when you rally by the scout keyword) you will reforge again. It's not a game changing mechani because having a lot of parts of the Blade doesn't mean you will have 6 Rivens on board BUT it's something to considerate, especially if you can play with Cataclysm in hand, more on that in the edit below.

** A new spell added to this decks was like I said above Field Promotion, which can not only allow you to give scout to your wincon (that can be the Ram, Riven or even J4), but to rally in odds with Cataclysm. If your opponent can't react to that on the spot it's just backbreaking so try to keep the Ram as your wincon because it can take a lot more punishment that Riven, J4 or a follower. But again: if your opponent deck is slow enough (like Turbo Thralls) you can go all in for an early finisher.

*** With 2.11, J4 lowered his level up from 4+ allies surviving getting blocked to 3+, which is WAY more achievable especially with beefy allies like Riven or the Laureant Protege, so depending on the matchup you can go/relly on the J4 level up and his sweets Battering Cataclysm. Now that I think this deck can go for a more slow approach with buffs like Sharpsight or spells like that to kick your opponent with every turn Cataclysm/Overwhelm/Scout shenanigans but that's not the scope of this one. But hey, if you have any ideas go for it.

**** This version cut off Tianna Crownguard and ditched 2 Golden Aegis over Relentless Persuit but those are still viable options for the deck.