Top 10 Cards & Complete Ratings of Beyond the Bandlewood

Hello, Agigas here!

Now that a very exciting spoiler season has just ended, I wanted to review some of the most promising cards that are coming in the Beyond the Bandlewood expansion.

The evaluations and ratings given to the cards in this article are, of course, still pretty speculative. In the coming weeks, some of the new cards are going to pleasantly surprise us, while some others will disappoint. But still, we can already start forming some early conclusions to get a headstart in the new season.

I’ll start by giving my Top 10 of the most competitively viable cards from the Beyond the Bandlewood. If you want to check out the complete ratings of the expansion, go here.

10 – Veigar

The 10th spot in this top was quite competitive and hard to choose. A lot of options that could appear here feel either slightly behind in terms of power-level, or very restricted in archetypes.

In the end, I chose to go with Veigar because of his key role in the Darkness archetype as both an enabler and a finisher.

This yordle’s stat-line is for sure a great gift for Renekton, but as long as you’ve created a single Darkness and got at least one Round Start effect off, you’ve done great already.

Later in the game, you’ll likely get to stick a Veigar for a couple of turns, greatly increasing Darkness’s damage. The level-up condition will then be very easy to fulfill.

Once he levels up, Veigar closes really fast by generating Darkness’es and throwing them to the opponent’s face.

I know Veigar in the top 10 list might be a controversial take, but I believe the Darkness deck is one of the best new archetypes in the expansion, and Veigar will be a key part of that archetype.

9 – Reborn Grenadier

From 9th place and onward, we start featuring some very impressive cards.

Reborn Grenadier looks really strong in discard archetypes, whether they are aggressive, midrange, or even operating at slower speeds.

When discarded, Reborn Grenadier will be directly summoned onto the board. This effect is reminiscent of Flame Chompers! and Jury-rig, and we’ve seen those units being used in meta archetypes aplenty. Reborn Grenadier has more impactful stats than them but pays for it with an Ephemeral keyword.

A major strength of this kind of effect is to be able to summon the unit at Burst speed. You can get one additional attacker or blocker out without giving up the priority.

Reborn Grenadier can also act as a cheap enabler for another good discard payoff. This is not a main use of the card, but that versatility just adds to its power.

8 – Minimorph

Minimorph is the kind of card that will feel really underwhelming in some matchups and situations. Playing 6 mana to convert a threat into a 3/3 unit is a very poor play tempo-wise.

However, Minimorph still earns a spot in my Top 10 cards of the expansion thanks to its incredibly high ceiling. The ability to shut down any champion at Burst speed is simply incredible.

There are a lot of decks that massively rely on their champions as win conditions. Lee Sin is a good example and that deck will struggle against this card. But even without going into extreme examples, using Minimorph on a Jinx, Anivia, or Sejuani will often feel very good too.

In a meta where the tempo is the king, I could see if Minimorph would not be played as much. However, in any other environment, I expect Minimorph to be run in a lot of Bandle City decks, especially since this region doesn’t have another strong big-unit removal.

7 – Otterpus

The hype is really high on Otterpus and the Prank mechanic, so it is no surprise to see this 1-cost unit in the Top 10. However, some might be surprised that it isn’t placed higher.

A lot of players consider Otterpus to be an auto-include in almost any Bandle City deck, but I’m of the opinion that this take won’t hold true. Otterpus and Pranks are great, but they don’t bring that much value and can sometimes have a low impact on the game.

However, 7th place is already a very high placement, especially when you look at the cards we’re about to cover next that all seem like powerhouses and staples.

While I do not believe that Otterpus is an auto-include, I think it is really great in decks with spell synergies or created cards synergies. There are a lot of payoffs for those mechanics in various regions, so I expect Otterpus to see a lot of success and to be played in a lot of archetypes.

6 – Pokey Stick

Ping effects are traditionally quite strong in Legends of Runeterra, as they allow to kill a 1-health unit, but also to remove a Barrier or a Spellshield.

However, you often need some additional value out of your ping spell – you don’t want to pay a whole card just for the 1 damage. This is why Blade’s Edge doesn’t see play while Statikk Shock and Vile Feast do.

Pokey Stick is an insanely powerful ping spell. Thanks to the draw 1 effect, this card will always get value, and it can easily trade 2-for-1 without losing tempo. Pokey Stick can also go to the face!

I believe Pokey Stick will be the staple 2-cost spell for Bandle City, just like Mystic Shot and Vile Feast for their respective regions.

5 – Nami

In her level 1 from, Nami isn’t a very impressive card, but she does have a decent body for her cost. She can consistently level up between turns 5 and 7 granted you play enough spells in your deck.

Once leveled, Nami is a very powerful buff machine, and she will very quickly grow your small units into dangerous threats. Buffs are obviously even better when granted to units with keywords, and Nami should fit perfectly into an Elusive Bilgewater deck.

While Nami isn’t the most versatile card on the list, she will likely create a whole new archetype around her.

She is a hit-or-miss champion, as I could see a world where she ends up needing too much setup and because of that misses the mark for competitive play. However, personally, I do believe that she will rather be a ‘hit’.

4 – Poppy

A repeatable Vanguard Bannerman without an Allegiance requirement that buffs itself as well? Sign me up!

Poppy, at level 1, seems to be a powerhouse for any swarm deck looking to create pressure through a strong board. One activation will often be enough to make her feel great, and in games where she gets more than that she will snowball completely out of control.

Her level-up condition isn’t easy, as she would need to survive 3 attacks. However, this quest doesn’t have a high setup or deckbuilding cost so it’s bound to happen sometimes. Once leveled, the pressure she offers is mind-blowing, and she will close out the game very easily.

Poppy synergizes very well with combat tricks. If you can protect her to make sure she triggers her effect, Poppy will feel like an impressive champion. She also is very strong with Rallies. I particularly like Golden Aegis, as it will double up as a protection to help Poppy survive the combat.

Thanks to her dual-region identity, Poppy will likely fit into several archetypes and will push them to a whole new level.

3 – Senna

Senna is a very impressive champion and she easily gets a top 3 spot in this list thanks to her power level and versatility.

Senna will be a staple in the Darkness archetype. Her pairing with Veigar seems quite obvious, though we could also see some builds that don’t invest into a Darkness package as much, running Senna with other champions.

She is more than just a Darkness champion though – Senna’s ability to change the speed of some spells has a lot of impactful synergies.

Go Hard is the most notorious one – casting it at Fast speed allows you to put two Go Hard’s on the stack at the same time, and therefore resolve a 1-mana Pack Your Bags! You can find a lot of other interesting interactions as well – for example, with The Ruination.

Also, Senna has an excellent champion spell – Senna’s Dawning Shadow will play out as a better Vengeance!

Senna’s level-up condition is not very hard to fulfill, and while it doesn’t offer a big power spike, the cost reduction is a nice bonus.

2 – Hidden Pathways

While Hidden Pathways isn’t strictly an ‘archetype-defining’ card for any of the new decks, it earns a very high ranking because it’s a consistently strong and versatile effect.

Bandle City is very proficient at creating cards, and your deck will often meet the requirement of Hidden Pathways without even trying. Many other regions also have strong card creation effects, so Hidden Pathways will be easy to fit in almost any build that wants it.

This card is comparable to Deep Meditation, which has been an Ionia staple ever since it was released. Deep Meditation draws spells specifically, so there is not as much combo potential with Hidden Pathways, but the cost reduction will be even easier to activate.

While Hidden Pathways’ effect might not look like it will shape the landscape of Bandle City, strong draw effects are often what makes a truly competitive deck.

I expect Hidden Pathways to be a staple of Bandle City and to see tons of play.

1 – Aloof Travelers

Aloof Travelers looks pretty busted to me. This card has a perfectly decent stat-line, disrupts your opponent, cycles through your deck, and doesn’t have conditions.

Discarding the opponent’s highest cost card is a very impactful effect, as it will often snipe their finisher as you’re both heading into the late game. It also has the potential to completely shut down some combo-oriented decks, such as Lee Sin.

While Aloof Travelers’ effect will be strong in any archetype, it can also find some additional synergies, with Traps for example.

It’s a dual-region card, so Aloof Travelers is very easy to include. If you’re playing either Bandle City or Piltover & Zaun, you need to have a pretty good reason to not bring this unit into your deck.

I expect Aloof Traveler to be a staple both for Bandle City and Piltover & Zaun.

Honorable Mentions

Waste Walker and Herald of the Magus are both very powerful cards. However, they are restricted to landmark archetypes by design, which ultimately means they will have less of an impact on the meta in general (unless their archetypes end up absolutely meta-defining).
As mentioned in Veigar’s section, a lot of the cards from the Darkness supporting package are impressive. Twisted Catalyzer, Stilted Robemaker, and Darkbulb Acolyte, all are very strong in their archetype.
Corina, Mastermind is a very potent finisher for shroom decks, but it’s hard to predict how strong the said archetype will be in the meta.
Fallen Rider is a very solid enabler in a discard archetype, allowing you not to sacrifice value while discarding.
Fleet Admiral Shelly can have a massive effect on a large board, preferably of Elusive units, as long as you have a bunch of cheap spells like Prank. Its high cost makes it a bit slow, but it is definitely a high-ceiling card.
Station Archivist is a very strong way to generate value without losing tempo. She also combines very well with Go Hard. A strong unit for decks with enough cheap proactive spells.

Beyond the Bandlewood Complete Card Ratings

Bandle City

The Bandle Tree	3.5	Dual region units can help progress this quest a lot faster than just relying on created units. Still, this is quite slow and forces you into weird decks. A lot of dual region units are more focused on swarm synergies a creating pressure than on controlling the game.
Entrapment	2.0	Even though this places 9 shrooms on a 3-of card in the deck, it’s likely not gonna see plays because of its lack of value. Can be an interesting counter to duplicated cards, for example, Go Hard.
Ava Achiever	2.0	This card can rapidly stack puffcaps in the opponent’s deck, and its ability to double traps makes it a good finisher in the right deck. However, this is pretty fragile for a 6 drop and won’t do much when it gets quickly removed. As a top-end finisher for shroom decks, I would likely prefer to play Corina, Mastermind.
Yordle Newbie	2.0	This can easily be a 4/4. However, large stats on turn 3 with no keywords aren’t that impressive if you’re not in a board-based high-pressure archetype.
Poison Dart	1.5	Bandle City has a lot of better ways to inflict small pings.
Puffcap Pup	2.0	Suffers the comparison with Yordle Smith. In a Shroom deck, Puffcap Pup’s value rises, but it still won’t always make the cut.
Lecturing Yordle	2.0	Bandle City’s turn 4 is stacked with good units, so Lecturing Yordle will likely struggle to make a name for himself.
Swole Scout	1.5	The effect shouldn’t be very hard to activate but is still quite restrictive. Too fragile to be reliable.
Stone Stackers	2.5	A card for board-centric decks relying on stats. The Tough keyword can be particularly valuable in specific metas (e.g. lot of pings, blades and sand soldiers).
Treasured Trash	2.0	On average you will get quite a few good plays out of this, making for the very high cost. However, its inconsistency will likely prevent it from seeing any competitive play. Interesting in a Bandle Tree deck to find your missing regions.
Hidden Pathways	4.5	The condition is very easy to fulfill in BC, and even other regions have quite a lot of card creation. Draw 2 for 3 mana is really strong and fits into most decks, Hidden Pathways will likely be a staple of the region.
Bandle Commando	3.5	2 health and elusive make it quite reliable. Great card in go-wide BC archetypes.
Babbling Balladeers	2.5	Not an impressive unit but offers decent stats and value, especially if you’re looking to go wide.
Benemone	3.0	The Chump Whump of pranks. 2 Pranks can reveal a lot of information about the opponent’s hand, and make their hand very awkward. The downside of the Benemone is to be a 4-drop in a region that can play Aloof Traveler, and not really fitting the identity of a specific deck despite its relatively high cost.
Conchologist	3.5	Good value attached on a decent statline for a 2-cost unit.
Kelp Maidens	3.0	Suffers from the “2 mana, 1 health, needs to survive” syndrome. However, it is a quite good unit when allowed to hit, and could quickly snowball a game with multiple pranks.
Otterpus	4.0	This is a Prank on a small body. While the body won’t be very relevant, it can still provide some early board presence, be buffed, or chump block later. The prank is very valuable tempo-wise, So Otterpus is an overall strong tempo play for any deck that needs one. Works well in spell synergy and created cards synergy decks.
Tricksy Tentacles	1.5	Losing tempo only to discard the likely least valuable card in the opponent’s hand is bad. Look at Hunt the Weak.
Shell Game	2.5	This kind of an awkward Ghost. Good synergy with Nami.
Trinket Trade	3.5	You should often get Otterpus out of this, but it adds some versatility out of the extra mana cost. In most decks, I think you would rather play Otterpus. Combos very nicely with cards such as Zoe, Subpursible, or Catastrophe, thanks to the ability to play 3 cards with different names by using only 1 card and 2 mana.
Keeper’s Verdict	1.5	This is more a stall tool than a real removal, as the opponent will find back his threat the very next turn. The slow speed makes the card really bad.
Yordle Smith	3.0	Very interesting card for a go-wide deck with some buff, like Lulu.
Stress Defense	2.5	Stress Defense looks like a bad protection spell, a bad combat trick, or a bad anti-combo. However, its strength comes from its versatility.
Heroic Charge	1.5	A worse Concerted Strike at slow speed. The stun is an interesting addition to make the card a bit more versatile, but it doesn’t make up for the massive downsides.
Yordle Squire	3.5	Good stats with an additional spell generated, you can’t ask much more for a 1-drop. The shield will be good at protecting your units, while the spear will help get a good trade with a small unit or buff an evasive unit.
Minimorph	4.0	Minimorph is a card that will feel like a 1.5 in some games but will be a straight 5.0 in others. This is basically the most reliable anti-champion in the game thanks to the burst speed, and also allows you to deal with dangerous units (Ledros is a good example). The big downside is that is card is very inefficient – it’s expansive and gives the opponent a 3/3. Therefore, it will be really bad against a flood of cheap, low-value units.
Wizened Wizard	2.0	I have another play: pass you turn 3 and gain 3 spell mana, you’ll be up a card compared to playing this unit! More seriously, I’m not sure which shell could be interested, the body is not very useful when you’re supposed to be an engine, though it adds a bit of versatility…
Twisted Catalyzer	4.0	This card is really insane in the Darkness archetype, the only damage buff aside from Veigar. Getting an early hit out of it will change the game. Its 2 health points can make it a bit fragile.
Stilted Robemaker	4.0	Another really important card to the Darkness archetype, which surrounds itself with good cards. The cost reduction will make casting darkness between each generation a lot less clunky and a lot more efficient.
Darkbulb Acolyte	4.0	Good board presence, cheapest Darkness generator, augment keyword that can make it upgrade. What could you ask more?
Event Horizon	2.0	Most units have more than 2 attacks. Can be a tech for a bandle deck to counter a strategy weak to stuns.
Tristana	3.0	Tristana is stuck into the multi-follower archetype, meaning her popularity will depend on this archetype’s power level. Maybe Poppy can carry the archetype. She can rapidly grow and easily level up, making her a very cost-efficient champion as the game goes on. She seems to be an aggressive champion but isn’t very strong early on. Bandle Tree might be an interesting multi-follower archetype, but she doesn’t fit there because of her aggressive playstyle and mono-region assignation. Overall, a decent champion but with some identity problems and restrictions.
Buster Shot	2.0	The slow speed is a big downside. The conditions to be cost-efficient are quite restrictive. Even in the right deck, this might not be good in the early turns, which are the turns where a 3-damage removal is the most useful.
Bandle City Mayor	2.5	The body is very weak and this will come at a large initial tempo cost. The cost reduction effect and value are the payoffs, but this card is very limited in archetypes.
Bandle Painter	1.5	Bandle city doesn’t create many meaningful discard tokens and doesn’t have discard synergies. Getting a completely random multi-region follower will often not be very useful.
Gruff Grenadier	3.5	Allegiance means this card won’t fit into many archetypes. The card is great for a bandle swarm archetype. There is a lot of competition in the bandle 4-drop.
Bandle Gunners	1.0	Too expensive, not impactful enough, the condition limits it to a certain archetype that likely doesn’t even want this card.
Double Tap	1.5	This removal is pretty inefficient when compared to the like of Concerted Strike. The restriction doesn’t help. The fast speed at least makes it one of the rare reactive removals for the region. The fact it competes for a spot with Minimorph likely won’t help this spell to see plays.
Yordles in Arms	1.5	This kind of effect already existed in other regions and never saw plays. Bandle seems to be all about flooding the board, which could help, but I think even those archetypes won’t want this card.
Group Shot	2.5	Small damage spells scale badly into the game without an interesting side-effect. The restriction makes this spell a bit awkward as it deals less damage early on. Still, this spell has a good matchup against small units and spellshields.
Purpleberry Shake	2.5	The effect is very small, you need some key 1/1 units in your deck to make it worth playing. Maybe this spell could help a deck with Teemo for example.
Mirror Mage	3.0	8 cost units need to be extremely impactful, as a lot of games can be decided before turn 8. Mirror Mage doesn’t do anything on its own, which is a bummer. However, it has a large pool of health, making it quite hard to remove. When given enough time, Mirror Mage can find tons of synergies, as there are many strong mechanics that create cards: Invoke, Manifest, Darkness, Akshan, Go Hard… Overall, Mirror Mage seems like an interesting top-end for a lot of synergies. However, I expect it to struggle because of its high cost, unless it can find a very strong combo to consistently impact games decisively.
Curious Shellfolk	2.0	There are quite a few mechanics for randomly selected options, such as Invoke or Manifest. However, a value engine is often not what you’re looking for as a 6 cost unit, as you enter game-deciding turns.
Bouncing Bomb	1.5	The flexibility is quite good, but both modes are so underwhelming, especially at slow speed.
Inventive Chemist	3.5	This unit has quite a decent statline, and the created landmark is just added value. While Scrappy Bomb’s effect is very small, its main purpose is to synergize with landmark destruction effects.
Safety Inspector	2.5	In a landmark destruction archetype, this card can probably fit. Dealing 3 to anything is a very impactful effect, and the statline is quite good.
The Arsenal	2.0	Depending on how many landmarks you can destroy, and how much you high roll on keywords, The Arsenal can be a powerful finisher. However, this card needs a deck very heavy on landmark destruction and even then might be too inconsistent.
Hexplosive Minefield	3.0	Interesting landmark when building a landmark destruction archetype. 2 stuns for 1 mana is quite good, even though this card doesn’t provide much value.
Mega Inferno Bomb	1.5	At slow speed this is completely over-costed, I don’t see any deck that would be interested. Interesting synergy with Kegs, but it will likely not be enough.
Yordle Contraption	1.0	Overcoasted, neither of these effects justify paying 5, at slow speed.
Pokey Stick	4.0	Likely a staple removal for Bandle. Removes spellshields, ping 1-health units, all the while drawing a card.

Bilgewater

Nami	4.0	First of all, Nami comes down with a quite decent statline, her 3 health for a cheap cost making her quite resilient. Her ability is not very impressive but is quite abusable when you cast tons of spells in a deck with elusive units for example. Nami level-up condition isn’t very hard to fulfill granted you have a bunch of spells to cast early on. Attune can help accelerate it. Overall, it seems like Nami can level up as soon as turn 5, and should have no problem leveling up turn 6 or 7. Once she levels, the +2/+1 boost is very impressive, quickly transforming any unit into a dangerous threat. Nami looks really scary in decks combining lots of cheap spells and elusive units, as long as you don’t run out of cards.
Ebb	2.5	A randomly targeted mystic shot doesn’t sound like a good deal at all. Flow is really unimpressive too, as you can directly compare it to Guiding Touch. Finally Ebb and Flow is a good spell, but nothing too impressive in my opinion. Having to go through so many bad spells to get to it sounds like a very bad deal to me. Decks really invested into small spell synergies, like Nami, could be interested, but even in those decks, I believe there will be better options.
Abyssal Guard	2.0	This can grow its attack a lot, but it will often just get traded into a 3 attack unit, which sounds really bad for a 4-cost unit that doesn’t bring anything else than its body to your gameplan. Could be interesting alongside Shell Game or another “give elusive” spell, but even in that shell, there might be better targets.
Avatar of the Tides	3.0	This card screams infinite combo. With a bunch of cost reductions (e.g. Akshan’s landmark, leveled Viktor) you will end up casting huge, or even infinite amounts of spells. Outside of its combo potential, I don’t think this card is very good because completely random spells that cost 3 or less will often end up very disappointing.
Fleet Admiral Shelly	3.5	In a shell with a lot of spells and a solid board presence, Fleet Admiral Shelly can go completely out of control very quickly. It looks like this card requires quite a specific archetype to work properly, maybe sharing an archetype with Nami.
Journeying Sandhopper	2.5	This card’s stats are very impressive for its effective cost in a deck able to make great use of spell mana. However, you need to make something out of that large body, else it is just not progressing your game plan.
Marai Songstress	3.5	3/2 elusive for 2 mana is very under-costed. There aren’t so many very cheap Bilgewater spells fitting in any shell, but if your second region does bring some, like bandle city with pranks, this card isn’t so hard to activate.
Marai Warden	3.0	Bilgewater’s House Spider. A bit more variance, but still consistent enough to make it good.
Marai Greatmother	2.5	On average the power level of 6+ cost spells is quite high, and casting them for 3 mana will be quite impressive. However, this card has a quite high deckbuilding cost, which I don’t think is worth making because playing random cards doesn’t make for a consistent and cohesive game plan. Also, costing 4 make this card a bit awkward, as it overlaps on the curve with 2 of the best BW cards in decks looking to draw, Zap and TF.
Tidal Wave	3.5	Very reminiscent of Go Hard. Unlike Go Hard, the first cast is a pretty large tempo lost. To make up for it, the second cast is already really impactful. Finally, the third cast is a 4 damage Pack Your Bag. Unlike Go Hard, casting a copy of this spell will not duplicate the amount you have in your deck, and won’t stack other copies of the card. Depending on where in your deck are placed the 2nd and 3rd form of this spell, this can go from really good to really bad. This sounds a bit more complicated to consistently enable than go Hard, but the payoff is there.

Noxus

Sion	3.0	Before he levels, Sion is a big Overwhelm stick, granted you discarded enough cards. His cost is expensive, and I don’t see what deck would want him in that form. Once he levels up, Sion becomes a lot scarier thanks to his returned form creating pressure with a rally and 10 overwhelm damage. Sion’s level up should happen quite naturally in a deck with discard synergies. Looks interesting in a Harrowing archetype.
Roar of the Slayer	3.0	In a discard synergies archetype, with ways to get rid of small units, Roar of the Slayer looks like a great fit to get rid of a bigger threat. However, the card loses some points because of its competition with Get Excited, and because it gets completely countered by small fast speed units, such as Vile Feast.
Ancient Warmonger	2.5	Neither the discard effect nor the unit itself are impressive, but both will do a fine job. Noxus was lacking a good 5-cost overwhelm unit, so I could see it fit in an overwhelm archetype, especially with Draven to sometimes make use of the discard ability.
Fallen Reckoner	2.5	In a very aggressive deck, granting “can’t block” to the opponent unit can be almost like removing it. However, this card’s statline is quite weak, and hyper-aggressive decks don’t have much room for expensive units.
Fallen Rider	3.5	Fallen Rider is a slightly underwhelming card before it gets discarded, but it really shines in a discard-heavy deck. Being able to leverage a card with a discard drawback, while not losing any card in hand and getting an under-costed fearsome unit is an awesome deal. For example, playing a turn 1 Zaunite Urchin into Risen Start sounds like a great aggressive start that also brings you value.
Lost Soul	2.5	The good part about Lost Soul is having a repeatable discard fodder. Twinblade Revenant is not impressive but will do its job just fine as a challenger unit, getting you an infinite loop of discard fodder and challengers. This is not very explosive nor a win condition, but in a deck with heavy needs in discard fodders, it will be a helpful addition.
Noble Rebel	3.0	If you play this card without triggering the effect very quickly, it will be underwhelming – just compare it to Iron Ballista. In a discard-heavy aggressive deck, Noble Rebel could fit as a way to push damage through an early board. A lot of players seem to like the card over Crowd Favorite in Discard Aggro, which seems like a promising direction as long as you have enough early discard effects.
Reborn Grenadier	4.0	Reborn Grenadier seems to be an amazing card for discard-heavy decks. It can easily fit an aggressive discard deck, as the opponent will either need to block it or lose valuable nexus health points, but also in a midrange discard archetype, where it can also be used as a burst speed blocker – granted you have a burst speed discard effect. While playing this card “normally” does seem a lot less interesting, having the option to cheaply enable another discard payoff can be valuable.
Salt and Stitches	2.5	Salt and Stitches is a lot less impressive than Reborn Grenadier, as it is less flexible, and the attack buff often won’t be that impactful. In a hyper-aggressive, board-focused deck, Salt and Stitches has the upside of summoning a focus-speed unit, perfect for open-attacks.
Grave Physician	3.0	Grave Physician is reminiscent of Zaunite Urching and Sump Dredger. However, its statline is a little bit underwhelming. Being in Noxus could help some decks without PZ to leverage discard effects. Finally, this card doesn’t really draw any card, but tutors a unit, which could help certain archetypes.
Weapons of the Lost	1.0	8 mana for a 6/5 fearsome and 3 damage to a unit just doesn’t seem like a very efficient use of 8 mana. Expensive cards need to have a huge impact when they’re played to make up for the fact they can’t be played early into the game, and this card just looks really underwhelming and doesn’t fit into any particular synergy.
The Lady of Blood	2.5	Fleeting cards are discarded at the end of your turn. If you discard cards with a valuable effect when discarded, The Lady of Blood will create quite a significant value, effectively doubling the discarded cards’ effects. However, This doesn’t seem very abusable in discard archetypes, and this card’s statline will make you fall behind on the board. Overall, I am not entirely convinced by this card even though it can help to get more value out of your discard effects.

Piltover & Zaun

Caitlyn	3.0	Caitlyn’s statline and keyword are good, and her effect is a welcome addition. She doesn’t seem very easy to level with Flashbomb traps, and Caitlyn will likely have an easier time leveling up in a Shroom archetype. Once she levels, Caitlyn gets to apply even more pressure, with more Flashbombs created, and some face damage on her attacks. Caitlyn’s weakness however is her lack of reliability, as she doesn’t do anything on summoning and needs to hit to impact the game.
Stinky Whump	2.0	The statline is alright, but the effect is underwhelming. If you don’t force the opponent to draw a lot (e.g. Hexcore Foundry) they might never draw it, if you force them to draw a lot they won’t care as much about getting one low-value draw.
Sump Fumes	2.5	It should be quite easy to fulfill the condition in PZ. The fact it can’t go face makes it a bit underwhelming compared to Mystic Shot or Get Excited.
Piltover Peacemaker	2.5	To justify this spell, you will need to run payoffs for Traps, limiting this card to Trap decks exclusively.
Insider Knowledge	1.5	Needs big synergies. Even there are likely better options to force the opponent to draw cards.
Coup de Grace	1.5	Pretty unique spell in PnZ. However, follower-only and card disadvantages are big downsides. Even when you trap the opponent deck, the follower-only restriction likely kills this card.
Corina, Mastermind	3.5	The first effect is quite weak, you often need an immediate effect from your 6-cost unit. The second effect is a great finisher and payoff in trap decks, and I would expect most trap decks to play some amount of Corina, Mastermind as their top-end.
Sting Officer	3.0	Suffers from the “2 mana, 1 health, needs to survive” syndrome, making it very fragile. However, it is one of the better Flashbomb enablers and can do a lot of work against decks with no pings or elusives.
Justice Rider	2.0	Her impact on the game is quite slow for a 4-drop. Even if you manage to give her enough time, she still won’t be all that impressive.
Advanced Intel	1.0	The value is too low, this is the Mushroom Clout of flashbomb decks – a good effect, but you don’t wanna spend a whole card for it.
Ambush	2.0	Sumpwork Map has always been there and never saw success. I don’t expect this to do better.
Officer Squad	1.5	The unit doesn’t have enough impact for its cost, you need your 5 cost units to be impactful. I would rather play Most Wanted in my main deck.
Most Wanted	2.0	Draw 3 is a lot of value if you have a discard fodder. However, this cost a lot of tempo, and the slow speed is a big downside.
Station Archivist	3.5	Brings a lot of value, allows you to see your future draws. Great card in spell-heavy decks.

Shadow Isles

Senna	4.0	Darkness engine and accelerating them to fast speed is really impressive. She’ll likely push the archetype into competitive. Very strong interaction with some spells (Go Hard, Ruination, Thermogenic Beam) will make her see a lot of plays outside of her dedicated archetype too. Great champion spell (better Vengeance) will help her being a staple champion.
Dawning Shadow	1.5	Without Senna this spell is a lot less impressive. The slow speed is a big downside, Vengeance will likely be played over it.
Dess & Ada	2.0	Interesting option in Darkness to control the board and level your champions. However, an 8 drop that doesn’t end the game on the spot by itself, and that can have a very low impact in some matchups and situations doesn’t sound great, and even Darkness decks might pass on it.
Piercing Darkness	2.5	Drain 5 is a big amount, this card looks very helpful when you’re in a defensive position. The slow speed is a big downside. Piercing Darkness becomes a lot better with Senna on board.
Buhru Sentinel	3.0	Great unit if you can quickly trigger its boost. Looks very interesting for a tempo SI archetype, Go Hard for example.
Demacian Sentinel	3.0	Great unit if you can quickly trigger its boost. Looks very interesting for a tempo SI archetype, Go Hard for example.
Watcher on the Isles	2.0	If you play it too early you’ll lose tempo, play it too late and it won’t have enough impact.
Mistkeepers	1.5	Doesn’t fit in the Mistwraith archetype at all, and is too slow for a 5-cost unit.
Ixtali Sentinel	3.0	4/5 lifesteal is a strong anti-aggro statline. The card also brings some value with the darkness and helps to level up Veigar.
Solari Sentinel	2.5	Decent Darkness generator. Pales a bit in comparison with Darkbulb Acolyte.
Catalogue of Regrets	3.0	Huge value generator. The tempo loss however can be a problem, and the lack of immediate impact is also a problem when comparing with a draw effect. Great combo with Go Hard.

Shurima

Xerath	3.0	Very restrictive effect and level-up condition. His level 1 is really weak, but in the right deck, it should not be hard to level Xerath. Once leveled, Xerath becomes a lot more interesting as a board-control champion, grated you still have some landmarks. Xerath could also give a more consistent level up for the Sundisk archetype.
Rite of the Arcane	2.5	Cost-efficient removal, though you want to be in the landmark destruction archetype to make use of it.
Endless Devout	3.0	Good value on a 3-drop. The opponent can ignore the 3/3 to slow down your game plan. Good synergy with Roiling Sands in the landmark destruction archetype.
Risen Altar	2.0	I want my 6-cost card to have an effect on its own. Too expensive to synergize well with land-destruction champions. Restricted to the landmark destruction archetype, and even there I am not entirely convinced about the card.
Herald of the Magus	3.5	Very restrictive conditions – you need to be in an archetype where you see a lot of landmarks getting destroyed, and have champions that benefit well from the buff. However, in the aright archetype, this is a very powerful and reliable card.
Waste Walker	4.0	Restricted to archetypes with enough landmarks getting destroyed. However, it is really impressive in those archetypes, and will greatly help them get competitive.
Construct of Desolation	2.0	Both options are pretty underwhelming cards. The versatility is nice, and the fact it allows you to run 6 Ruinous Acolytes can be useful in a Ruinous Acolytes archetype.
Ruinous Acolyte	2.0	Reminiscent of Mistwraith, but does have an extra cost of destroying a landmark.
Obelisk of Power	1.5	Doesn’t provide enough value. Landmark destruction archetype has access to better ways of enabling its destroy effects.
Sandseer	3.0	Good value on a good body, solid card overall. However because it is a large investment in a card that doesn’t fit a lot of game plans, I could see it not making the cut very often. Hard to abuse the effect with landmarks, as even landmark-focused decks don’t run more than 10 landmarks in their main deck.
Unleashed Energy	2.5	Quite an impactful buff in a landmark destruction archetype.
Servitude of Desolation	2.0	Can win games sometimes, but seems quite situational for a 7 mana spell.

Multi-region & other

Aloof Travelers	5.0	Aloof Traveler makes an amazing value, he can swing matchups by discarding a key card, and he isn’t much of a tempo cost. This card seems straight-up overpowered. It doesn’t need to be in a specific shell to be strong, and it fits into 2 regions, so I expect Aloof Traveler to be played in A LOT of decks.
Furious Faefolk	2.0	In a deck with Impact units, or other ways to directly damage the opponent’s nexus, Furious Faefold should often trigger on curve. The Quick Attack keyword makes this unit annoying to block, and Impact 4 will ensure it pushes a lot of damage. However, this is a 7-cost unit and is somewhat fragile.
Poro Sled	2.5	Looks like a decent 5 drop for a poro deck, once you played a couple of Poro snack the created 1-cost poro will matter. Still, this is very niche and quite expensive.
Proto Poro	1.5	The poro tribe helps in poro decks but it is not enough to justify playing such a weak card.
Arena Kingpin	2.0	You need an impactful effect out a 3 mana 2 health unit, else you’re making yourself too vulnerable to Mystic Shot, Blighted Ravine, Avalanche, and many more. This looks underwhelming. Most likely use is in Bandle Tree deck.
Loping Telescope	3.5	Loping Telescope allows you to get some board presence while creating value. Creating cards also have payoffs in bandle city. I expect this card to be played in value BC decks.
Shark Trainer	2.0	This engine has kind of a low immediate impact for its cost. However, the free sharks will help closing games, and with a couple of attacks, this rapidly becomes oppressive.
Poppy	4.0	Repeatable Bannerman, with no allegiance restriction, and that buffs itself? Sign me in! Poppy’s level up seems quite hard to reliably and quickly achieve, but she doesn’t need it to shine. It doesn’t require any deckbuilding cost either, so it’s bound to happen sometimes when poppy survives through combats.
Yordle Ranger	3.0	This card packs quite a lot of stats both for itself and its allies, and the scout keyword accelerates the snowball and the pressure. Overall a nice top-end for a go-wide deck, though it will likely suffer from its competition with Cithria the Bold in Demacia.
Pompous Cavalier	2.0	You need quite a lot of reliable and strong buffs to justify playing this card. With its single point of starting health, Pompeous Cavalier is very fragile.
Veigar	4.0	Veigar is a very solid champion for the Darkness archetype. His statline is really weak, and you can find way more efficient Darkness generators. However, the Darkness damage buff is very relevant and will make the whole archetype better if you’re able to get 1 or 2 procs. Veigar isn’t quick to level, but he doesn’t need to be on the board to level which makes him reliable. Then, Veigar becomes very efficient as a Darkness engine and as a finisher.
Tenor or Terror	3.5	The effect is very easy to activate. This brings quite a lot of stats, widens your board, and gets you some reach with impact. Great unit in Bandle, however, it has a lot of competition from the other bandle 4-cost great units.
Ziggs	3.5	Ziggs base statline and level 1 effect make him a very efficient unit. I would likely play him in an aggressive deck missing a champion, even without a lot of landmarks synergies. In his landmark destruction archetype, Ziggs becomes even better. However, Ziggs’ ceiling doesn’t look very high, and to become a “real” champion instead of just a cost-efficient unit, you completely rely on the landmark destruction archetype, which seems a bit narrow to me.
Bomber Twins	3.0	Great statline on a 2-cost unit with some value attached to it. Will definitely help the landmark destruction archetype, though I don’t think it will fit elsewhere because random landmarks aren’t all good.
Battle Bonds	1.5	Slow speed likely kills the card, as it can’t be used as a trick.
Tail-Cloak Matriarch	2.0	Recalls effects are often used alongside strong summon effects, therefore the ephemeral copy will have the upside of triggering that said summon effect. However, the recall archetype doesn’t seem to be a thing so far, and this card isn’t an impressive payoff.

Closing Words

If you have a question, want to share feedback, or discuss this article, I’ll be happy to answer you in the comments below!

If you like my content and don’t want to miss out on anything, you can follow me on Twitter, where I share every article I write, but also my tournament performances, my most successful decks, etc… 😉

Thanks for reading!

DotGG Network

Prometa

DotGG Network

Prometa

DotGG Network

Prometa