Veigar Review and Theorycraft

Hello and welcome to the review and theorycraft of Veigar – the third champion that was revealed from the Beyond the Bandlewood expansion.

I’ve already done my theorycraft on Poppy earlier this week, and she made quite an impression on me – so now let’s see how this evil yordle holds up!

As always, I will begin by giving my opinion about the champion, followed by a very brief theorycraft of a deck that will potentially enable them. Finally, I will give my rating and a short write-up about every other card released today.

Veigar – 3.5

A 1/4 stat-line can trigger some Zilean PTSD – it was me who reviewed that champion for RuneterraCCG back in April and I did overestimate him at that time.

Then we look at the mana cost and… well, 4 mana 1/4 is a really bad proposition. The high amount of health, however, is a good sign for a backline champion and that makes the stat-line a bit more passable.

His entire archetype relies on creating and casting Darkness – a Slow spell that initially does 2 damage to any unit for 3 mana, but the amount of damage can scale and there are also ways of reducing this spell’s cost.

Veigar creates one Darkness on-summon and then passively increases the damage of all Darkness‘es you ever create on every Round Start. Darkness is a powerful spell, as it will quickly grow to become an insanely efficient removal. The units that can create Darkness are all very valuable since they essentially are 2-for-1’s and as such give you inherent card advantage.

Note that you always have to use your current Darkness in your hand before you can create another one. The opponent can play around this restriction, and sometimes this may force you to use a Darkness on a less-important target. It is not a huge downside – it rather adds some additional complexity to both playing as and against him, which in my opinion makes it a very interesting mechanic.

The level-up condition of dealing 12 damage with Darkness may sound difficult at first, but on average it will probably take you around 3 casts of this spell – and importantly, Veigar does not need to see the damage being dealt.

Veigar’s level-up is what makes him a true force to be reckoned with. Not only does he now create Darkness on every Round Start instead of just when he is summoned, but he also allows you to target anything with Darkness – including the opposing Nexus.

Essentially, this puts the opponent on a clock, because you will be able to blow up the opposing Nexus probably in no more than 2 turns with just Darkness casts.

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Karma Veigar created by Mezume • last updated 2 years ago

Standard

Control

Regions

13

27

Types

6

19

15

0

0

Rarities

6

0

16

18

Mana Cost

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7+

Champions (6)

4

Veigar

3

5

Karma

3

followers (19)

1

Otterpus

3

2

Conchologist

3

2

Darkbulb Acolyte

3

2

Twisted Catalyzer

3

3

Wizened Wizard

3

4

Stilted Robemaker

3

4

Tenor of Terror

1

Spells (15)

2

Nopeify!

1

2

Retreat

2

2

Twin Disciplines

3

4

Concussive Palm

2

4

Deny

2

6

Hidden Pathways

3

6

Minimorph

2

Here’s a theorycraft of Veigar in a pretty far-fetched combination with Karma! While I do believe Ionia is a good region for Veigar, Karma might be pushing it a little too far – with that said, I would be happy to experiment with it!

This deck combines Veigar and Karma for a powerful finish if you can stick them both on the board, as Darkness will one-shot the opponent’s Nexus in the late-game.

The list seemingly does not have too many control tools, but the Darkness is all it needs really. With multiple ways to create it, it will help you control the board, and a rather low curve of the deck will help you contest the game early.

This archetype includes the entire Veigar package to ensure that Darknesses are doing their job. It also incorporates powerful disruption tools from both Bandle City and Ionia to make the opponent’s life miserable.

Otterpus provides Pranks that can slow down the opponent’s aggression, while cards like Twin Disciplines, Retreat, and counterspells allow you to protect Veigar and Karma. Conchologist, as well as Hidden Pathways, help ensure that we do not run out of value during a longer game, while Minimorph gives us insurance against combo decks like Lee Zoe.

Wizened Wizard is here for two reasons – first of all, there aren’t that many good 3-drops in Bandle City and the ones in Ionia are also not too impressive. Secondly, you can use it for two purposes – either for mana generation, or straight up just to trade, if needed.

Finally, the last new card included is the Tenor of Terror – it is here just as a 1-of, as we already have a fair amount of good turn 4 plays, but it can aid you in fighting off wide boards or just provide more aggression if you get off to a fast start yourself.

Event Horizon – 3.0

Stun at Fast speed is always a good effect to have access to – Concussive Palm is a good example of that.

This spell doesn’t generate a body but it can stun a board of small units, which is a very decent trade-off.

Additionally, Event Horizon can be useful both offensively and defensively; and such versatility likely makes it worth the cost.

Its viability will depend on other Bandle City reveals, but it already seems like a fairly solid card on the verge of playability.

Darkbulb Acolyte – 3.5

2 mana 2/2 is a solid stat-line for a unit that has an additional effect – and Darkbulb Acolyte’s ability is decent on its own and extremely powerful if you’ve been able to funnel some extra power into Darkness.

Overall it is a very simple card that is also likely to see play in any Veigar deck that decides to delve into Bandle City.

Stilted Robemaker – 3.5

Sure, it is a slight tempo loss when you play a 4 mana 3/4 with no immediate effect, but its ability more than makes up for it.

Darkness being cheaper means you can fit more plays into a turn when you use the spell to send an enemy unit into nothingness, which in turn will compensate for the initial tempo loss.

Twisted Catalyzer – 4.0

Let’s be real – this card is very unlikely to Strike more than once.

But the good news – it does not really need to. It presents a threat powerful enough that it will almost never trade poorly.

Putting 2 mana 3/2s into your deck rarely feels bad – and this one adds a powerful ability on top. If you’re a Veigar deck, you want to play this card.

Wizened Wizard – 3.0

Round Start effects aren’t very common in LoR and this one is likely not going to make them more common in the meta.

This is a Wyrding Stones-like effect, except for spell mana, and while getting that trigger off is very useful – I find it difficult to imagine that decks will desperately want this card.

On turn 3, you don’t really ever want to trade with it without getting at least a round-worth of value – which means you’re essentially sacrificing board tempo when playing Wizened Wizard early on in a fast-paced game. The upside is that spell mana is never lost between the turns, so the value you get is guaranteed.

Minimorph – 3.5

It’s a permanent silence for champions – so even if it is not the greatest tempo-wise, it is still an incredible effect.

In a particular meta, this could hands down be the best card in the game to include in your Bandle City deck.

Luckily for Lee Sin and other all-in wincon lovers, this card is also awful in any meta where aggro decks are popular.

Tenor of Terror – 3.5

The condition here is really easy to fulfill, both for SI as well as BC decks. Due to this, I believe this card is quite powerful.

It is vulnerable to cards such as The Box or Avalanche, but across Tenor of Terror and Bass of Burden, it still provides a total of 5/5 in stats with Impact on top.

Is it game-winning? Of course not, but it is a fairly strong card that can make it into a variety of decks – as a blocker, as a way to go wide in a deck with Poppy, or simply to create a sturdier board.

Closing Words

Earlier in this season, I really liked Poppy reveal and it seems we are still on the same hype train, as I am absolutely loving Veigar.

I am not sure if the power level is outstanding, as he is a bit on the slow side, but he will be definitely tons of fun to build around. I’ve built the deck with SI, Ionia, and even PnZ already, and I cannot wait to just try them all out in the game when the cards all come out!

I hope you enjoyed the article and it gave you some idea of how strong the cards will be. Of course, I could be completely wrong, as we all sometimes are during the reveal season – so make sure to form your own opinion!