Beyond the Bandlewood LoR Card Impressions: Prank, Sharks, and More

Beyond the Bandlewood LoR Spoilers Day 5

To follow along with past and future Bandlewood card reveals, just click here.

• Trinket Trade (Bandlewood spell)
• Shell Game (Bandlewood spell)
• Tricksy Tentacles (Bandlewood spell)
• Short Tooth (Bandlewood follower)
• Shark Trainer (Bandlewood + Bilgewater follower)
• Otterpus (Bandlewood follower)
• Kelp Maidens (Bandlewood follower)
• Conchologist (Bandlewood follower)
• Benemone (Bandlewood follower)
• Prank (Bandlewood spell)

New Keyword: Prank

The ocean is full of playful tricksters! Bandle City's new spell card, Prank, lets you take a peek at two of your opponent's cards and apply a random negative effect to one of them. pic.twitter.com/Iaq2XDlTL5

— Legends of Runeterra (@PlayRuneterra) August 15, 2021

So what exactly does “Prank it” mean? This effect applies a debuff to a card in the opponent’s deck. It’s basically a reverse Lucky Find, or like the intentionally weakened cards you can pick from the Saltwater Scourge Lab.

Here are the examples that have been revealed so far:

• Grant -2 Power
• Grant -1 Power and Can’t Block

So without knowing the entire pool of effects, it’s a bit difficult to evaluate.

Reducing stats is quite powerful when it can prevent the opponent from making trades they normally could.

Denying the ability to block is also a big deal in certain situations.

What’s notable here is the fact that Prank applies to a card in hand or deck. We don’t have control over the cards we hit, but it is possible our choice can hinder the opponent immediately.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out as it’s near impossible to account for the potential debuffed card in your deck. Players will have to adapt as it happens which should create some crazy moments!

So far we’ve only seen stat debuffs on followers…but what about spells? Prank only refers to non-champion cards and doesn’t specify only followers.

If we’re to reveal a spell from the opponent’s deck then we’d theoretically have to apply a different type of effect.

However, it’s all speculation at this point so we’ll have to wait and see!

Trinket Trade

• Trinket Trade
  • 1 mana Burst spell
  • Text – Manifest an Otterpus or one of 2 spells from your regions that cost 3 or less.

Trinket Trade is an interesting spell. It feels similar to Spell Thief in how it generates semi-random spells to choose from at the cost of one extra mana (for itself).

Of course this time we’re pulling from a more specific pool of cards, and depending on your regions this could be quite powerful.

Most of the best spells exist at three mana or less, so you’re likely to find at least something of use.

Best of all you have access to an Otterpus in times where you really need a blocker.

Lots of potential with this card; especially with decks like Lee Sin that want to cast two spells per turn.

Shell Game

• Shell Game
  • 5 mana Burst spell
  • Text – Refill your spell mana. Give an ally Elusive and +1|+1 this round.

Cute flavor, but it’s hard to get on board with this one. We can almost evaluate this card as a two-mana card.

However as we’ve learned from Attune, this often doesn’t play out as such when we have a hefty upfront cost. Compared to Ghost, we’re paying one more mana for an additional +1|+1.

This just isn’t a good deal. Shell Game does have cute synergy with Lux as it’ll count as five mana while really only investing two.

Although I’m not sure a temporary Elusive buff has any place in that archetype.

Tricksy Tentacles

• Tricksy Tentacles
  • 2 mana Fast spell
  • Text – Your opponent discards their lowest cost card.

We finally have another comparison to Hunt the Weak. Except this time we’re able to hit ANY card; spells and champions included.

Fast speed is interesting as it could force them to discard a unit during the stack before it could be played.

This creates some new decisions and play patterns to consider.

This is going to be a very niche card. You’re not going to want this when queueing against Discard Aggro or decks with cheap token spells.

And Beyond the Bandlewood is introducing even more token generation.

Perhaps we’ll see some more discard synergies, but outside of any extra support this doesn’t look great.

Shark Trainer

• Shark Trainer
  • 7 mana 6|6
  • Attune
  • Text – When allies attack, spend 1 spell mana to summon an attacking Short Tooth.

Short Tooth

• Short Tooth
  • 1 mana 4|2
  • Overwhelm

On the surface, Shark Trainer is another big seven mana follower that doesn’t immediately impact the game upon summon.

However with its built-in Attune and unique ability, each attack can summon a 4/2 Overwhelm shark. The most important text is “When allies attack”.

Blade Dance and Rally first come to mind. This allows you to abuse the attack trigger all while keeping Shark Trainer safe on the bench.

It may be too slow, but it’s a powerful effect if we can get there.

Otterpus

• Otterpus
  • 1 mana 1|1
  • Attune
  • Text – When I’m summoned, create a Prank in hand

Prank

Our first introduction to Pranks, AND an adorable otter!? Yes please. A 1/1 with Attune for one mana isn’t half bad, but it’s going to come down to how useful the Pranks are.

At worst we get a chump blocker that generates a cheap support spell or free discard fodder. That’s pretty good! My only complaint is the pain that’ll come with chump blocking. I’m sorry Otterpus!

Kelp Maidens

• Kelp Maidens
  • 2 mana 2|1
  • Elusive
  • Text – Nexus Strike: Create a Prank in hand.

Good stats for a 2-drop Elusive unit, plus the ability to generate additional value.

Very solid card that could find a home in Elusive or spell-based decks.

Biggest drawback is being vulnerable to pings, but with the right support you can always protect it.

Conchologist

• Conchologist
  • 2 mana 2|2
  • Text – Play: Manifest a spell from your regions that cost 3 or less.

Likely the best card of today’s batch, Conchologist takes Trinket Trade and tacks it onto itself.

Being a 2/2 body already and foregoing the Otterpus, we get an additional spell slot to choose from. Conchologist reminds me of Black Market Merchant, except without the Plunder requirement!

What’s even better is the ability to choose what you want. As mentioned earlier, with the right region combination this is very powerful.

Look out for this guy…Conchologist is likely to be a mainstay in many Bandle City decks.

Benemone

Finally our last reveal, Benemone. We’ve got essentially the “Chump Whump” of Pranks.

There’s always a place for units that generate additional cards, so if the synergies call for it, Benemone is a great option.

Again it’ll depend on how useful Pranks are, but at a baseline the card is solid.

Shugo’s Productivity Thought of the Day

Do you act upon habit or by choice? We often default to what’s easy and do the same thing, even when we have free time for anything.

When you’re free, take an extra second to think. What do you actually want to do? Then do it!

We’re revealing the new Beyond the Bandlewood cards every day at our spoiler page. To build decks with the new cards, head to our Deck Builder.