Hi all, Shadawx here to go over the newly revealed cards we are getting with the Arcane mega-event that is coming out tomorrow, November 10th. There are 10 new cards in total and they all look very interesting so let’s dive right into it!
Jayce/Acceleration Gate/Shock Blast
With the Arcane event coming up, we have some new cards revealed that could shake up the metagame. The most exciting of them would be the new champion we’re getting, Jayce
!
For those unfamiliar with League of Legends, Jayce, The Hero of Tomorrow, was League of Legends’ 100th champion. He can swap his weapon between 2 forms; Mercury Hammer and Mercury Cannon. Mercury Hammer is a melee form where he can jump on enemies or bat them away with his hammer. Mercury Cannon is a ranged form where he can increase his attack speed or shoot a hi-speed Shock Blast from afar. His Acceleration Gate also amplifies his Shock Blasts while in his ranged form.
Now that Jayce is arriving in LoR and bringing some other supporting cards with him, he also brings that flavor of playing him in LoL. As the newest Piltover and Zaun champion, his level 1 is a 4 mana 4/4, and on play, he gains a keyword of your choice, Quick Attack or Challenger. His level-up condition is to cast two 6+ cost spells (He does not need to see you cast them). When he levels up, he gives you an Acceleration Gate
in hand.
Jayce’s level 2 form buffs him up to a 5/5 and maintains the same on Play effect, but now also has the ability “Each round, the first time you cast a 6+ cost spell, cast it again on the same targets.” He synergizes well with some of the other new cards like Ferros Financier
which can manifest a 6+ cost spell, Forge of Tomorrow which can net you some mana back after casting a 6+ cost spell, and Hextech Anomaly
which can cycle through different 6+ cost spells each turn.
Jayce is a well-stated unit that can make use of the keywords you can choose to grant him. Once he levels up, the generated Acceleration Gate is great to use on a big board to let you finish off the game. Furthermore, his level 2 effect is a crazy powerful effect. We know doubling spells is busted since we’ve all seen Karma
decks work.
To get a deeper look at Jayce, let’s start by breaking down the 2 keywords he can grant himself and see how each one will stack up against the meta:
Quick Attack
Picking this on turn 4 with the attack token is quite amazing. If your opponent wants to block Jayce with Quick Attack they will either have to take an unfavorable trade or commit a spell.
The few units in this meta that can block Jayce and survive without buffs on turn 4 would be: Lecturing Yordle
, Braum
, Leona
, Taric
, and Tahm Kench
. While these units can block Jayce and survive, none will kill him without support or extra resources. Once he’s level 2 and his stats are boosted to 5/5, his threat level just becomes even more deadly.
Challenger
With this keyword, Jayce will be able to pick off those pesky backline units who like to cause trouble for you.
A turn 4 Jayce with Challenger will be able to deal with high threat units that should be removed quickly like: Poppy
, Akshan
, Draven
, Sivir
, Ziggs
, Veigar
, Zed
, Bandle City Mayor
, Zoe
….and pretty much any elusive unit that comes down by this stage of the game.
With his 4/4 stat-line, he can trade favorably into most of those units remaining in play with 1 or 2 health points. Again, by turn 4 there won’t be many units that even have 4 or more attack to trade into Jayce. If there is, you can pull one of the other smaller units for a good trade. Units like Stone Stackers
, Fleetfeather Tracker
, and Laurent Protege
(who want to be the ones attacking) are great low attack targets to pull with Jayce so they can’t make use of their Impact or Challenger keywords.
Overall, I think this is the trickiest part of Jayce. Knowing how to assess the situation and pick the keyword that is right for you. Are you the aggressor and want to push some damage or take free trades? Go for Quick Attack.
Want to clear out some of their high threat units sitting in the back or want to threaten future ones? Go for Challenger.
Thinking ahead and understanding the flow of the game like that will help you determine which keyword would be best.
Now for Jayce’s level up condition, Acceleration Gate and his level 2 ability. They’re all tied into each other, so let’s take a look at Acceleration Gate first.
Acceleration Gate right off the bat looks great as a finisher with a big board. For 6 mana at slow speed, it gives all your units +2/+0 and Quick Attack for the round, but if a unit already has Quick Attack it will give a random keyword instead. Sounds pretty neat right? Now imagine if IT WAS DOUBLED!
Casting this with Jayce on board will end up giving everything +4/+0, Quick Attack, AND a random keyword. With Acceleration Gate being a freely generated card, the value it can get you is great. It can be a finisher or force some favorable trades.
If you’re looking to end the game, keywords like Overwhelm, Scout, Fearsome, and Elusive can help sneak through damage, while keywords like Tough and Spellshield make them tougher against removal. Even if you know you can’t end the game, it’s still a very strong play.
With everything getting at least Quick Attack and +2/+0, you can force some good trades and get in some good damage!
Now, that we’ve gone over how good Acceleration Gate can be, let’s take a look at making good use of Jayce’s level 2 ability.
If you’re playing a deck more focused on leveling up Jayce, then chances are your deck has more 6+ cost spells than usual. With Jayce’s level 2 ability, the first 6+ cost spell you play each round will be doubled.
Looking at only the pool for Piltover and Zaun, the spells that would benefit the most from being doubled are: Unlicensed Innovation
, Trueshot Barrage
, Progress Day!
, Glorious Evolution
, and Shock Blast
. Hextech Transmogulator
and Give It All
do nothing if doubled.
Of those listed, Progress Day! and Glorious Evolution are pretty situational…Progress Day! would only be great to double if your hand is very small or else you may overdraw. Glorious Evolution is quite expensive and Augment doesn’t double but the cost reduction does. (Both of these cards have a bit of counter synergy with Jayce as they have a cost reduction mechanic attached to them so they may not be the best choice; depending on what other 6+ cost spells you’ve elected to run you may lose the ability to double up on them)
From the other regions, I’ll list some spells that would be overall good to double. I’m thinking about things that give you an advantage like refilling your board or hand, good buffs, or just removal:
Back to Back
, Brood Awakening
, For Demacia!
, Redoubled Valor
, Remembrance
, Shifting Sands
, Ricochet
, Boomerang Blade
, Pack Mentality
, Mega Inferno Bomb
, Winter's Breath
, Battle Fury
, Cosmic Inspiration
, Destiny's Call
, Reinforcements
, Strength in Numbers
, Weapons of the Lost
, Feel The Rush
, and Warmother's Call
.
With these cards in mind, Jayce looks like he’d synergize well with a couple of champions:
Lux
Lux shares a similar level-up condition as Jayce, with Lux needing to see 6+ worth of spells cast. She also grants a Final Spark
by meeting those same conditions in her level 2 form. You’re already likely to be running a bunch of 6+ cost spells in your deck, any one of them would be able to instantly level up Lux or grant you a Final Spark.
Heimerdinger
Heimerdinger’s ability can also make really good use of the 6+ cost spells you’ll be running in a Jayce deck. He creates a turret equal to the cost of a spell you cast, and the 6, 7, 8 cost turrets are some of the best ones. That coupled with Acceleration Gate or some board-wide buffs could make this a very problematic deck to face.
Extra Mention – POROS
PnZ/Frej poros have been missing a solid champion for the deck. With Jayce being a great all-around champion, I think he’s an auto-include in a poro deck.
If you can level him with cards like Pack Mentality and Aurora Porealis
you’ll then be able to double up on those spells and get access to Acceleration Gate. It just seems like he would find a nice home here with his fluffy friends.
The last point of interest is Jayce’s champ spell, Shock Blast. A 6 mana slow spell that deals 3 damage to an enemy or their Nexus, and 3 damage to another.
Being a 6 cost spell, it already synergizes by helping you level Jayce or providing a good payoff for use of his level 2 ability. Even without those pay-offs, dealing 3 and 3 to two enemies is not that bad; but it does suffer from its slow speed, making it unusable in combat and easy to disrupt. I think the best part of this spell is the fact that it can be used on the enemy Nexus as well, so it offers some burn while helping control the board.
Since Shock Blast is Jayce’s champ spell, that means it can be maindecked even without Jayce. Control decks that have PnZ in them with champs like Heimerdinger, Ezreal
, or Senna
will love this card as a board control tool while offering ways to damage the Nexus.
Some of the downsides to Jayce I would say is the fact that while his stats are solid, there’s one card in the meta that is problematic for Jayce and that card is Lecturing Yordle. Its solid stats and generated Poison Dart
are quite annoying since it’s a solid blocker with an inherent way to ping off Jayce afterward.
Another problem is leveling up Jayce can take a while. It can be hard to find the right time to commit mana to cast those 6+ cost spells. If you’re against a faster deck like Elusives or Ziggs Poppy Burn, then you might not have time to cast two expensive spells before dying.
Overall though, I think Jayce is very strong and I’m excited to see what kind of brews you all come up with!
Hextech Anomaly
A very interesting card, Hextech Anomaly will cycle through a random 6+ cost spell whenever you see it or on round start. The interesting part is that it can sit in your hand until it becomes the best card you need for a situation.
Need to clear the board? Let’s hope for Ruination or Icequake 
.
Want to just win the game? Pray it rolls into Feel The Rush or Mind Meld
.
Need more cards in hand? Thanks Progress Day! and Treasured Trash
!
While the card is interesting in that it could be anything, it could also become a dead card most of the time, either being too expensive for the mana you have or something straight up unplayable. It is a very RNG-dependent card, but I can see it making for some interesting content.
The Forge of Tomorrow
The Forge Of Tomorrow
is a very solid landmark for the 6+ cost spell archetype. It gives you a unit right away on summon, it gives you 3 mana back when casting those expensive spells, and it fits nicely on curve.
With it on board, you can play one of those 6+ cost spells and not tap out of mana completely that turn, this will let you cast something else cheaper or just bank the spell mana again into the following turn.
In decks like Glorious Evolution Shellfolk, on your big Glorious Evolution turn, this will give you some mana back to continue playing spells and buffing your Augmented units. You can do things like bank 3 mana, play this on round 3, and play something like Assembly Line
or Shock Blast two rounds in a row.
Overall a very solid card for PnZ decks that run at least a few 6+ cost spells.
Assembly Line
A new spell to help along the PnZ side of the 6+ mana spell archetype, Assembly Line will give you two Forge Worker
to fight with. It can come down as early as round 3 and would be a great option to build up a board, either for pressure or as blockers.
With Jayce level 2, you could double this and have a nearly full board for 6 mana. Speaking of Jayce since this is giving you a nice wide board, Acceleration Gate should synergize nicely. The Forge Worker are nothing too special with only 3/3 stats but they can become extremely threatening with Quick Attack and +2/+0 or more.
Forge Chief
Forge Chief
seems like a solid 1 drop that could find a home in any PnZ deck. Being able to constantly refill 1 spell mana whenever it strikes is worthwhile, especially if it goes unanswered for multiple turns.
In an aggro deck, this can help bank up spell mana for burn spells while being able to curve out on followers.
In a control deck, this would be able to help give some early board presence while letting you get value out of blocking. I think in a control deck, the Piltover and Zaun 1 drops were lacking aside from Fallen Feline
or Zaunite Urchin
, which didn’t fit in every deck.
Current decks this could fit in? I don’t think it would fit well into something like Draven/Sion or Discard Aggro, but perhaps in the old PnZ/SI burn decks or the Scathus pile control deck. This could give the boost those SI/PnZ decks needed to help their early game curve.
Ferros Financier
Solid 2 mana 2/2 follower that helps support the 6+ cost spell archetype. Being able to Manifest a spell, rather than a random one, allows you to pick what you could use and make use of in the turns to come.
Even late in the game, he can come in clutch, as he has the chance to find some form of removal or to generate some sort of value. With the only real good 2 drops in PnZ being Ballistic Bot
and Boom Baboon
, I think Ferros Financier will quickly become a staple in PnZ control decks, specifically Shellfolk decks or Zoe/Vi.
Hextech Handler
Heimerdinger support? In this day and age? And it’s actually decent?!
Hextech Handler
is a great card for the Tech archetype. Being able to grant all your Techs everywhere +1/+1 really helps Heimerdinger’s turrets by enabling them to survive pings while also allowing them to dish out more damage.
On the topic of turrets, since Hextech Handler requires a 6+ cost spell to activate, one would assume you’re playing some 6 mana spells which lets Heimerdinger generate his most obnoxious turret, the Mk6: Floor-B-Gone
. With the Elusive keyword attached to this turret, it’ll be tough for your opponent to find a blocker. Since it will now have that extra point of health from Hextech Handler’s buff, it can’t be pinged off.
You may even be able to further buff it by casting something like For Demacia! or Acceleration Gate… I sure wouldn’t want that to connect with my Nexus.
Overall this is a neat solid support card for the Tech archetype, and perhaps it’ll be the push it needs to see more play. This also would work with Glorious Evolution, but that avenue seems like much more of a meme.
Albus Ferros
The Jayce boat, Albus Ferros
is a 7 mana follower that will fetch a Jayce to your hand on summon. While this is nice and all, his real power lies within his ability. If you’re playing a deck where you need to tutor Jayce and are running this card, then chances are you’re running a bunch of 6+ cost spells. That means by the time you get Albus Ferros down, his ability will be hitting for about 3 or more damage to the Nexus.
While this might seem promising, at the moment I feel it might be a bit too slow to make an appearance. However, I think it has the potential to be a nice finisher card or maybe a 1 of in some decks.
Ferros Skycruiser
4 mana Elusive that can grow up to a 4/4? Seems pretty decent.
Elusives have always been a bit of a problem in the game since they’re hard to deal with if you don’t have removal. And most decks don’t run their own Elusives to trade off. With Ferros Skycruiser
’s base form having 4 health and the potential for its attack to grow, it shouldn’t be too difficult to keep it alive until you can get one of those big spells down.
The question is, how much play will this card see in more traditional PnZ control decks? Or will a new Elusive PnZ deck come to take over the meta with this card at the helm?
The wrap-up
Well, that’s it for the thoughts and recaps on the new cards. I hope that some of my insights and ideas were able to inspire you to try out the new cards and I look forward to seeing all the new Piltover and Zaun brews out there.
Don’t forget, tomorrow November 10th, at 10 am PDT is when the new cards will be available and when the brand new PvE mode is out!
About the Author
Playing LoR since beta, consistent masters player. LoR Dreamhack winner, and other high-level tournament wins/top cuts. Crazy deck builder. I like garlic bread.
If you’d ever like to chat, know more about the game, or would like some coaching sessions, feel free to hit me up on my socials!
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