Custom LoR Cards Review: Silco, Janna, & More

You might not know it, but out there you can find a massive community of Legends of Runeterra players with a passion for designing their very own custom cards!

There is an entire subreddit called CustomLoR, where such freshly designed cards are posted daily! You can also enter various custom design contests hosted by a few different awesome content creators.

Today I want to share with you several of my favorite custom cards that I have seen recently. I have curated this list based on the submissions on Reddit, Twitter, and from suggestions in my Discord! 

• Author: Handcannoterase

First, we have one of League’s original supports, Janna! In LoL, she is known for the ability to boost the speed of allies with her passive, Tailwind.

This design by Handcannoterase showcases Janna’s quickness in a very unique way, which is in the ability to draw additional cards, but with the Fleeting tag. This is cool because it really captures the feeling of speed in an interesting way, but it’s also original because no other champion is based around this game mechanic. 

Having Janna be a 2-drop with Elusive is great for Piltover and Zaun. The current 2-drops available are all fairly specific and narrow, so there’s a lot of room for a champion in that spot. Obviously, a Nexus Strike ability on an Elusive unit is quite powerful, but it is also fitting in this case. On top of that, Janna only has 2 health in her base form, which feels like a fair trade-off.

One of the big upsides to this design is the ability to level even while in your deck. Usually, playing 5 Fleeting cards is not that easy of a feat to achieve – but that is where her Tailwind comes into play. Not only does she create Fleeting Tailwinds, but they also draw Fleeting cards. If you can manage to level Janna, there is a fantastic payoff of giving your Fleeting cards a cost reduction. 

Piltover and Zaun is the perfect region for a card like this, as they already have some access to Fleeting synergies with card draw, as well as Discard synergies that could benefit from Fleeting.

Overall this design fits the champion, has unique mechanics and deck-building possibilities, and seems very viable. My biggest worry would be the overall value she provides as a low-cost unit. There is counterplay, but she could turn out to be a massive draw engine – and you remember, Stress Testing exists!

With all that said, I greatly enjoy this champion design so huge kudos to the creator!

• Author: WoodyDeschain

Next up, we have a devastating Slow spell from Noxus! On the surface, a big board removal in this region instantly reminds me of Reckoning. The difference with Strength Above All is you do not have to meet any very specific requirements – you just need a strong unit.

The main reason I really like this design is that it is just so fitting for Noxus. This region is all about strength. They have massive followers and champions that could easily destroy a full board of units with this card, and be the last standing. The savagery of this card fits the region perfectly.

My main worry about the card is in the way it is templated. The way it is worded right now, it could be played even when you don’t have any units yourself to make the Strongest enemy unit strike everything else. This scenario is barely a show of your strength as a Noxus army, so the flavor is not quite there.

Moreover, the spell can also be played on an empty board with no effect, making you waste a card. To avoid both of those dubious cases, the card can use some clearer requirements (like needing your own Strongest unit to resolve), but other than that, I would love to have this fun top-side removal option in my Noxus decks!

• Author: Pew-Pew-Person

Up next we have a shark captain from Bilgewater; Admiral Dreadfin. This card was first posted on Reddit by Pew-Pew-Person a long time ago, but was recently suggested to me by a Twitter user K4T4N4.

There are not many static effects in Legends of Runeterra right now, so that space is open for further exploration. And Admiral Dreadfin adds a really cool twist to it!

Adding Vulnerable to all damaged enemies is a pretty strong effect. Bilgewater already has some really cool synergies with Vulnerable like The List, and on top of that, they have ways to do wide damage across the board with Miss Fortune, Twisted Fate, and Make it Rain. This would allow you to really play around with giving Vulnerable to enemies and utilizing that to further push damage through.

On the other hand, Admiral Dreadfin gives your own damaged units Fearsome. Bilgewater has self-damaging units from the Tahm Kench package, most notably – Jack, The Winner, – and they all could get Fearsome on-demand this way.

With a 3/6 body for 5 mana, Admiral Dreadfin is also pretty hard to get rid of. This leads me to my main worry about the card, which is the raw power level. Yes, this is a very specific effect and only synergies with particular strategies, but it is really strong. Combining Vulnerable and Fearsome can lead to you getting a ton of damage through unblocked.

One possible suggestion would be to keep the first part the same, but give damaged units on both sides Fearsome. This would allow you to still get that sweet synergy off, but reduce the overall power level by also helping your opponent a little bit.

It’s possible this card would be perfect as is – but most likely it would take a lot of testing to find a nice balance. Overall I love the space of the game this card explores and I hope to see something like it eventually!

• Author: Shane

I wanted to take a second here to show off my own custom card, and the first one I ever made! I am just getting involved with this Custom design scene, and having a blast with the community as I do. My first card is Silco! If you are a fan of Arcane, you know why I just had to design Silco because I want him in the game so badly!

I wanted Silco to have obvious synergy with Jinx, but also serve the Discard package overall. My first thought was why not make Silco a “boat” (a tutor) for Jinx! Instead of just straight-up drawing a Jinx, however, it is more fitting if you have to discard a card to do so. This helps if you already have a Jinx on board as you could discard a card to level Jinx before you draw the next one. It also just fits the package incredibly well. 

I didn’t want Silco to only be restricted to Jinx decks, so I gave him a powerful Attack skill that was inspired by Albus Ferros. This skill will deal 1 damage to Silco’s blocker while dealing excess damage to the opposing Nexus, but that damage will increase by 1 for each and every card you discard that round. With an ability like that, Silco should see play in various Discard synergy decks, and not just with Jinx.

For his actual cost, power, health, and keywords, I wanted to keep it relatively simple. He needed to cost a bit more than Jinx, and have worse stats than his cost would normally allow because he finds you Jinx and has a great ability.

This led me to putting him at a 5/4 with a 6 cost, so he fits the Discard curve well. His main competition in that slot would be the Augmented Experimenter. I think competition over particular mana slots within archetypes is actually great for deck-building.

Lastly, I gave him Fearsome. This is a keyword Piltover and Zaun does not have on their region pie (at least yet), but it fits Silco’s character perfectly. It also doesn’t add a whole lot of finishing power, so it’s mostly just a thematic keyword.

Conclusion

Clearly there are many talented designers out there that I had not known about until recently! I am having a blast looking at all of the custom cards out there, and I hope you enjoyed this highlight of a few of my favorites.

If you want to be more involved make sure to head over to CustomLoR’s Reddit and if you want to see more of my designs, I will be sharing them on my Twitter every week!

Also, let us know if you would be interested in ‘Custom Cards Reviews’ as an ongoing regular series on RuneterraCCG!