Yuumi Review and Theorycraft

Hey, den here!

‘A Curious Journey’ has started its reveal season and we already have a ton of new cards and mechanics being added to the game. During these first 2 days, we got close to 20 cards, a lot of support for the ‘Fae’ tribe, and a new keyword Attach’.

Amongst this first batch of cards, Yuumi is obviously the big talking point, and the community has been very vocal about the champion already, sharing both concerns and excitements regarding The Magical Cat.

Outside of the champion, there is also a lot to talk about when it comes to the tempo that the Fae tribe can now develop, as their synergy is very reminiscent of Yordles.

Here’s our rating scale:

5.0: Meta-defining card, should prove itself as a staple in multiple top-tier archetypes.
4.0: Archetype staple, or auto-include in multiple archetypes.
3.0: A solid playable, could serve as a staple for some archetypes.
2.0: Could be used for specific synergies, or to counter some decks.
1.0: Unlikely to find its place in the meta.

Yuumi – 4.0

A 3 mana 2/2 champion would be what we usually consider a bad deal, but reducing Yuumi review to just evaluating her base stats would be a terrible angle.

First, let’s talk about the Attach keyword, which would be the main way to use Yuumi most of the time. The keyword allows her to act as a sticky threat, with very limited avenues of interaction.

Obviously, the synergy with the Fated keyword is scary, and Yuumi seems to fit perfectly alongside Pantheon. In that deck, she will help the Fated units to grow even bigger with her passive +1/+1 grant every turn. Also with Demacia as the common second region alongside Targon, Yuumi’s level-up condition isn’t unattainable if we take into account Cataclysm and Golden Aegis.

Outside of this specific synergy, Yuumi still represents a great support champion to increase the survivability of key units in our deck. An example would be Zoe in the Targon region – with Yuumi, she becomes incredibly difficult to deal with and you are increasing her chances of leveling up in a value-oriented deck.

Another champion that is worth mentioning here is Poppy, who has become unplayable after her multiple nerfs. With a Yuumi buffing her, Poppy once again is lucrative to play, especially since the level-ups of two champions have a natural synergy.

Because of Yuumi’s flexibility and a link to a current meta staple that is Pantheon, the weak 2/2 base stat-line actually doesn’t matter too much as long as the cat finds someone to be Attached to. I expect Yuumi to be a player in the upcoming metagame and find good use in at least one or multiple decks.

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Yuumi Pantheon Bandle created by den • last updated 1 year ago

Regions

Types

Rarities

Mana Cost

Champions (6)

followers (20)

Spells (14)

When it comes to Pantheon decks, in the end, I expect Demacia to stay as the second region alongside Targon after a couple of weeks of experimentation.

Players will simply slot Yuumi in the existing Pantheon Demacia deck rather than making a complete archetype overhaul and switching to a Bandle pairing. The reasons for that are the Brightsteel Protector and the Demacia combat spells, which will be too good to pass on. Also, Yuumi’s level-up condition receives a ton of help from tools like Cataclysm.

However, I still decided to feature the Bandle version above, because it showcases all the new Attach cards and their versatility.

Everyone saw and gasped at the synergy between the Fated and the Attach keywords, and I personally can’t wait to unleash my Double Attack Overwhelm Wounded Whiteflame. But even outside of this interaction, Bandle has three particular cards that will be really good in a Pantheon deck.

The first one is a Yordle Squire, replacing the Mountain Goat as a cheaper option while doing effectively the same amount of work. The other 2 cards are the Assistant Librarian, and the Gleaming Lantern.

The Assistant Librarian provides draw and, combined with Zenith Blade, there is little doubt it will find an easy way to trigger its Nexus Strike condition. Pantheon decks have proved to be Tier 1 material, but neither Targon nor Demacia have had much draw, so the addition of the Librarian could give the deck much more support in that department.

The Gleaming Lantern should see play in most Fae decks, even if those only play ~10 Faes in their deck. Its passive allows you to reduce the Quick Quill‘s cost to 0, Yuumi‘s – to 1, or Papercraft Dragon‘s – to 3, which makes your Attach units so much scarier and more flexible to use.

The main concern about this deck as compared to the current Demacia builds is the lack of removal spells. Against certain control matchups, those won’t be needed as much – but overall, without access to interaction, the deck could end up being too reliant on nut-drawing.

Hothead – 2.5

Obviously, buffing its champions is something most decks are happy with. Moreover, Shurima is a region with a lot of must-answer champions (Akshan, Azir, Ziggs, Renekton, Sivir, Xerath).

Bandle relies on cheaper champs but those usually are the best to buff as +1/+1 is a major upgrade on a small unit. Finally, Yuumi and her Attach keyword would mean we can spread that buff to our other units too.

Where I’m not as convinced is the randomness aspect of the card, as we have no guarantee to ever draw the said champion. Also, as a 3 mana 4/2, this unit can only really be good if you have the attack token on odds and is a poor play if you attack on even turns.

Transposition – 2.0

A gimmick card that could enable some explosive combos. The community already thought of using it on the Abominable Guardian in order to cheat our some 8-mana threat like Tryndamere as soon as turn 3.

Outside of those high-roll situations, Transposition has some tough competition within the Recall mechanic (Homecoming), and it is a Bandle card tied to the previously released Tornado Warrior and Thunder Fist, which unfortunately never saw play.

Spirit Portal – 3.0

With Lulu Fizz being a popular deck of the current metagame, it isn’t so hard to imagine a use case for this card where the Discard condition is another bonus.

Its Focus speed makes it almost exclusively a proactive pressure card – we want to cast it right before attacking in order to bring much more heat than what our opponent might expect.

This lack of flexibility is what will probably limit the card in the long run, only allowing players to play 1 or 2 copies in their deck rather than making this a win condition.

Yordle Portal – 3.0

Summoning at Burst-speed is very powerful, so cards that do that tend to be over-costed (Nine Lives).

Yordle Portal will often require you to over-pay for the actual unit you get, and you can’t Manifest a champion like Ziggs or Lulu.

Another limitation is the fact you will not get the “Play” effect of the summoned Yordle to go off, considerably reducing the potential of a Bandle City Mayor.

Still, there are some good ones to pull from the portal – like the Hothead we talked about earlier or Mentor of the Stones, to name a few.

The Discard requirement is easy to work around efficiently. If you have a good Discard target, you could surprise your opponent and set up a devastating attack. Alternatively, a Burst-speed blocker can also represent a nice tempo swing.

Gleaming Lantern – 4.5

This is the card the Fae tribe needed in order to become scary, and I expect Gleaming Lantern to be a key piece in any deck based around the tribe.

Fae units are cheap if they are pushing towards board swarm strategy, but more demanding in terms of mana if they have the Attach keyword.

In both cases, reducing the cost of a Fae is massive. You can either flood the board much more efficiently – or you can create threatening units with Attach much faster.

Blastcone Seedling – 3.0

This card gives you a ton of flexibility in the early game.

With the Barrier, the Blastcone Seedling can stop the opponent from attacking on turns 2 or 3, giving you the initiative to develop your board and set up your side of the table.

Also, this card can be used in Ionia Barrier package of Shen and Greenglade Caretaker if you’re ever interested to revive that synergy.

Impact isn’t a shiny keyword, but still allows this card to push a bit of damage against a slower opponent who doesn’t develop the board early in the game.

Assistant Librarian – 3.0

The Fated keyword received a big buff with the arrival of the Attach keyword. So, a Fated Fae immediately attracted the interest of a lot of players.

It will be hard to run this alongside Pantheon, who likely still needs Demacia more than Bandle, but it doesn’t mean the Librarian can’t find a home.

Thanks to the Attach units, we can grow it and give it Elusive or Quick Attack, making it much harder to be blocked, forcing resources from our opponent if they want to deny us the draw.

Lastly, her Nexus Strike allows us to find reactive and cheap support spells to keep our Faes safe.

Rainbowfish – 2.5

Cost is going to be a big factor in how efficient an Attach unit ends up being, as we want to be able to reattach it every time our opponent removes the unit it was supporting.

In this case, paying 4 mana isn’t something we would be able to do easy and often. But – the Elusive keyword is scary but I feel this is a fair price for it.

Played on a cheap unit, this won’t create a very oppressive unit, even with the 1HP buff. On a big unit, the cost of both cards combined should be well above the cost of playing an Arsenal or leveling up a Pantheon for example.

Papercraft Dragon – 2.0

If Rumble wasn’t in the game, I would have given this card a 1.0 and never looked back. But because I am a man who has a dream and wants to attack my opponent with a 7/6 Overwhelm Double Attack Mecha-Yordle, I’m going to give this card a chance.

At 5 mana, this is an investment – and against defensive decks running Vengeance of Freezing cards, you are likely to be down on exchange.

As such, Papercraft Dragon is only worth playing on a Spellshield unit, and with Double Attack, we also want to have either Elusive or Overwhelm.

All these conditions seem to be too much for this card to be relevant outside of gimmick synergies – unless more cards are added to the mix.

Quick Quill – 3.5

Quick is the cheapest Attach unit – which means it will probably end up being the best, outside Yuumi herself.

Quick Attack is a great keyword – remember Young Witch, who made the Demacia Ionia Rally deck a nightmare to block against in the early game.

Compared to Rainbowfish or Papercraft Dragon, Quick Quill looks to be more flexible, as it can be attached to Challenger units to create a nice removal in addition to bringing some pressure.

Also, and this is the key point to me, with Gleaming Lantern looking to be a key part of the Fae Synergy, every 2 mana Fae immediately becomes interesting to me. The possibility to open the round with a 0 mana action is great in order to force our opponent into committing resources before we have to do so.

Now that we’ve reviewed all the best and most interesting cards, let go over the rest in a quicker fashion:

Heroic Refrain (2.0): Probably a great card off of Conchologist, but I don’t expect this card to be played in more than 1 copy in any deck, much like Brothers’ Bond in Noxus.

Fae Sprout (2.5): While it has clear synergy with the Attach keyword, there are a total of 14 Faes in the game and the odds to get one with the Attach ones seem too low to run the card in a deck.

Fae Aid (2.0): While the Fae synergy is obvious here, I see this card mostly as a counter to control decks in order to beef up our units. At 3 mana, the card looks a little slow off the gate and would require the game to slow down a bit to be truly useful.

Grandfather Fae (1.0): There really isn’t much to talk about this card, to be honest. Creating an Hungry Owlcat, could be useful in a package alongside the Fae Aid but I think the Attach keyword will be at the center of the Fae synergy rather than the Owlcats generation.

Prowling Projectile (1.5): There are tons of ways to ping a unit in the game currently and this one doesn’t look as good compared to a Pokey Stick or a Vile Feast for example.

Scholarly Climber (2.0): While this is a good body for its cost, and the Spellshield could help with survivability, I see a lot of other Faes being more relevant and contributing to the overall synergy of a deck rather than the Scholarly Climber in a 40-cards deck.

Friendship! (1.5): The card simply looks too expensive to be playable outside of being a tech card in a removal-heavy metagame.

Mushroom Ring (2.0): The card lacks survivability in order to be worth investing in. Also, if your early game is matched by your opponent, you only end up with a weak 3-drop not allowing you to fight on the board efficiently.

Closing Words

The Fae synergy and the Attach keyword are a great way to kick off reveal season, and already the community is buzzing with ideas.

While I do have some concerns about how there are very few possible ways to completely remove an Attached unit, I think their high mana costs and the fact it is not possible to have several attachments on the same unit should compensate for it.

Many more cards are coming and I’m sure more implications will unfold once we have the full picture of where the devs team is trying to take us with this last block of Bandle cards.

Stay tuned to RuneterraCCG to get all the info about the latest release, and swing by our Discord if you want to talk about the new releases with the community.

Good game everyone!