Bard Champion Card and Deckbuilding Rule Guide

Bard, the Wandering Caretaker has come to Legends of Runeterra to power up your decks! Bard is one of the four new Champion cards making their debut in the sixth set of Legends of Runeterra – Worldwalker – and the second Runeterran Champion revealed after Jhin.

A traveler from beyond the stars, Bard is an agent of serendipity who fights to maintain a balance where life can endure the indifference of chaos. Many Runeterrans sing songs that ponder his extraordinary nature, yet they all agree that the cosmic vagabond is drawn to artifacts of great magical power. Surrounded by a jubilant choir of helpful spirit meeps, it is impossible to mistake his actions as malevolent, as Bard always serves the greater good… in his own odd way.

Bard’s Origin allows you to include any other cards that place Chimes into your deck from any region! Chime is a Boon, also a new keyword featuring in the new set that activate when the card is drawn. See our gallery below for all of the cards this includes, and start planning your decks for when Bard joins the game as part of the the upcoming Worldwalker set on May 25, 2022.

Bard and Support Cards

Bard is the second ever Runeterra Champion to be released with an Origin, and it couldn’t be more different from Jhin‘s. While Jhin’s Origin is about bringing skilled specialists into your decks from across many different regions, Bard is highly focused on creating his own archetype that he can bring into regions that don’t already have access to powerful stat gain strategies. This works well with the Elusive, Quick Attack, Double Attack, and Overwhelm keywords, and I expect to see Bard paired with Ionia and Noxus frequently for this reason.

While he only brings 6 potential cards to each new deck, (Proximity Puffcap isn’t included in his Origin!), they’re all focused on making your units both more dangerous and harder to remove, so slower decks will have a hard time stopping your board once you get rolling. Damage based removal will always have a hard time stopping Bard decks, but he remains vulnerable to cards like Vengeance and The Ruination.

Passively, just having Bard in your deck grants Chimes to random cards every round, meaning your units will constantly become more powerful as the game progresses while also helping you reach Bard’s level up condition. This is a new mechanic for Runeterra, as even Jhin’s Origin requires him to be in your hand or play to activate in-game mechanics.

Deckbuilding Rules

As defined by the Origin keyword on the card, Bard belongs to a generic region called “Runeterra” (defined by the region icon), which counts as one of your deck’s region and has a special effect that allows you to plant a Chime in your deck for each Bard that started the game in your deck (see list below). To amplify the effect of the Chimes, you would generally want to have the maximum 3 Bards in your deck. Some math by our very own Dr. LoR:

Special deckbuilding rules also apply:

• You can put in any card from the game in the deck as long as they can plant Chimes in your deck, regardless of their region. They are usually from the Targon or Bandle City region.
• You can choose any one other region.
• You can select another Champion from the new Runeterra region with an Origin, but you cannot select another region and only restricted the cards allowed defined.
  • For example, Jhin Bard deck can only have followers with Skills, and cards that can plant Chimes.

Cards with Chime

• Byrd, The Bellringer
• Esmus, Breath of the World
• Mystic Vortex
• Cosmic Binding
• Maduli, The Gatekeeper

Sample Theorycraft Deck

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Proximity Puffcap Power Play created by Sera_Strategy • last updated 2 years ago

Standard

Regions

31

6

Types

6

17

14

3

0

Rarities

6

2

11

21

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

1

Teemo

3

4

Bard

3

landmarks (3)

2

Mystic Vortex

3

followers (17)

1

Byrd, The Bellringer

3

1

Yordle Newbie

3

2

Esmus, Breath of the World

3

2

Puffcap Pup

3

3

Pompous Cavalier

3

6

Ava Achiever

2

Spells (14)

1

Bandle Tellstones

3

1

Poison Dart

3

2

Pokey Stick

3

2

Proximity Puffcap

3

4

Friendship!

2

In the example deck above I have focused on the newly revealed card Proximity Puffcap card, which allows you to deal 3 damage to any unit for 2 mana if a Boon or a Trap was activated that round. While you could play Proximity Puffcap with a standard Bandle PnZ list using Caitlyn and Teemo, Bard and his Chimes give twice as many opportunities to activate it at full power.

Esmus, Breath of the World makes a great support for Teemo or Puffcap Pup, safely increasing their stats while they are protected by their Elusive and Quick Attack keywords respectively. Bard’s champion spell Traveler’s Call gives you the potential to play a supercharged Pompous Cavalier to threaten huge damage and close out the game if left unanswered. I’ve also added Friendship! to cover the big weakness of relying on stat buffs, spell-based removal.

Yordle Newbie is here to help level up Bard, as you can trigger their stat gain effect with Pokey Stick, Mystic Vortex, or Bandle Tellstones. Speaking of, the new card Bandle Tellstones gives you versatile answers depending on what you need most between landmark destruction from Yordle Contraption, threat removal with Keeper’s Verdict, and a total of +6 stats from Heroic Refrain to further power level your Bard.

Closing Thoughts

Bard has a very specific archetype that he excels in, and I’m super keen to try pairing him with Yuumi and her fey companions next. I don’t think we’re going to see as many new decks featuring Bard as we will experimenting with Jhin, but that doesn’t say anything about Bard’s power level in the decks he appears in. Stay tuned to RuneterraCCG.com for the last new card and Champion reveals, coming soon!