Call of the Mountain LoR Card Impressions: Lulu Revealed (Whimsy!, Help, Pix! and More)

Our Thoughts on Lulu’s Reveal Package (Call of the Mountain)

Today’s reveal introduced Lulu as Ionia’s newest champion for Call of the Mountain!

Overall, her reveal package included:

• Lulu (Ionia champion)
• Help, Pix! (spell generated from leveled Lulu)
• Whimsy! (standalone Ionia spell and Lulu’s champion spell)
• Squirrel (Ionia follower/Whimsy token)
• Pix! (Ionia follower)
• Fae Guide (Ionia follower)
• Startled Stomper (Targon follower)

In this article, our Glimpse Beyond experts provide their initial takes for every card. Things got spicy in this one so stick around!

Lulu

• Lulu (level 1)
  • 3 mana 2|3
  • Text – Support: My supported ally grows up to 4|4 this round.
  • Level up condition – Our allies have been supported 3+ times.

• Lulu (level 2)
  • 3 mana 3|4
  • Text – Round Start: Create a Fleeting Help, Pix! in hand. Support: My support ally grows up to 5|5 this round.

Swim: Lulu’s a great card that will combo well with cards like Fleetfeather Tracker or Flame Chompers. She’s comparable to Kalista.

Precipic:  I like this card a lot in a deck that has the ability to protect Lulu and keep her alive. Something like a Shen Barrier deck could work well with her but she might also see play just in a Support aggro deck using your other Support cards to keep Lulu healthy. Challengers also work incredibly well with her.

Rattlingbones: First and foremost, I love this card. It fits into Challenger type decks very well but it is really important to experiment with the card beyond just Demacia. The card synergizes well with more than just Challengers. I can see her being played in certain SI, PNZ, and Bilge decks.

GdayMaverick: I think Lulu is a great champion that will see a lot of play largely because it has a very easy level up requirement.

This helps allow Lulu to be good throughout the early/mid/late game which gives it a lot of value. I see this working well with Demacia because it enables a ton of early/mid game pressure with cards like Fleetfeather Tracker and War Chef.

Help, Pix!

• Help, Pix!
  • 1 mana spell, Burst speed, Fleeting
  • Text – Give an ally Barrier or an enemy Vulnerable this round. Can’t be cast in combat or response to a spell.

Precipic: This card is interesting. The ability to give a unit Barrier for 1 mana is a very efficient way to level Shen and the Vulnerable effect works well in a Barrier deck in general.

I would try this out in some form of Shen midrange and try to put it on cards like Fleetfeather Tracker. It is also notable that the Barrier does a good job bricking out an opponent’s attacks by using it on a unit of defense before they attack.

Rattlingbones: 1 mana card with fairly good value as per Precipic. The fact that it’s generated for free off of Lulu seems insane.

GdayMaverick: Help, Pix! is what I think will raise Lulu from being a good A tier champ to being potentially an S tier champ.

The free 1 mana spell that can be used both on defense and offense is very valuable.

Protecting Lulu with Barriers or giving Barriers to your Challenger units is very good, but also creating a removal tool in the form of vulnerable to deal with annoying cards like Elusives, Ezreal, Neverglade, and so on, is fantastic.

 Whimsy

• Whimsy! 
  • 4 mana spell, Burst Speed
  • Lulu’s champion spell
  • Text – Transform a follower into a 1|1 Squirrel and Silence it this round.

Swim: Overall, I think Whimsy! is overrated but will still be an optional meta tech though.

Precipic: This card has a ton of potential. It is basically a burst removal spell. It doesn’t work on champions but during combat, this will kill basically any follower. Will of Ionia’s ability to hit champions might make it worth the extra 1 mana but this card is very likely to see constructed play.

Rattlingbones: It has tons of potential depending on meta. If Support archetype decks become more viable, the card will generate crazy value.

Overall, here are four main points to keep in mind:

• It’s a card that always needs to be played around.
• The fact that you have the card means your opponent can potentially make a wrong judgment of passing incorrectly, giving you extra turns.
• It’s a card that prevents big damage.
• It’s a card that can put you in an advantageous situation of potentially removing a problematic follower.

Silverfuse: I think in the right meta this card will be strong, but in some metas the card will be unplayable. In midrange and control metas, I expect it to be good.

The card has presence in and out of hand due to the high ceiling it has to blow an opponent out.

However, it certainly does have a weakness against champions that other cards that fit a similar spot don’t have an issue with. The card has low lows or high highs but is very likely to fit somewhere in the middle

Gday Maverick: At first this card got me excited, but then I realized it’s follower only which in my opinion is a massive downside. I’ve tried to play Possession in a deck that synergized around killing your own minions with cards like Chronicle, Glimpse, Ethereal Remitter, and even then, Possession wasn’t good enough because not being able to target champions was too much of a downside.

Another potential comparison is Fury of the North and I think Fury of the North is a much better card than this. Both cards almost always win you a combat round but Fury can also be used to push lethal.

In a tournament lineup, this card has a lot more value because it serves as a counter to certain decks while providing no value vs others. In the case where it provides no value you can just ban out that deck and use Whimsy to counter the 2 other decks.

For example, in a meta where the line up was Karma/Ezreal, Demacia with 3 Unyielding, and an Endure deck, this card would be amazing as you would ban Karma/Ez, a matchup where this card would be awful, and then use it to counter the Unyielding deck and the endure deck.

Overall, this card is average, and won’t see much play past the initial hype and is far from being on the same level as Fury of the North with exceptions to unique metas.

Squirrel

• Squirrel
  • 1 mana 1|1

Precipic: This card is terrible. I have trouble seeing a situation where you would ever want a 1 mana 1/1 with no other text on it. Hard pass.

Rattlingbones: Similar note to Precipic – simply terrible :).

Pix!

• Pix!
  • 1 mana 0|1
  • Text – Support: Give my supported ally +2|+1 this round.

Precipic:  This card might go in an all-in version of the Support archetype where you just want every card in your deck to have Support in it.

A 0/1 body however is incredibly vulnerable so it’s unlikely that it sees play in anything other than an all in deck.

Rattlingbones: Similar to Squirrel, I don’t see this being played much if at all.

Fae Guide

• Fae Guide
  • 4 mana 3|3
  • Text – Play: Grant an ally Elusive.

Swim: Fae Guide is decent. It isn’t for Elusive decks but for midrange.

Precipic: This card does a ton of work, it basically has utility at every stage of the game. The ability to grant another unit elusive can allow you to punch through board stalls with your big units.

Cards that this combo’s really well with are high power early game units or units with attack effects. Something like turn 3 Reckless Trifarian turn 4 fae guide seems powerful.

Fae Guide also makes early game value engines like Lulu or Rivershaper much more powerful.

Rattlingbones: Fae Guide seems very interesting. Giving high-value champions or offensive units Elusive feels quite good.

Startled Stomper

• Startled Stomper
  • 2 mana 2|3
  • Overwhelm

Swim: This is a solid buff target that’s amazing with Mentor on turn 3.

Precipic: This card seems quite weak. Overwhelm on a 2 attack unit doesn’t have much value. If this sees play it will be because you want to have a buff target and make this into a really big Overwhelm unit.

Rattlingbones: I feel like an Overwhelm unit in a meta without Purify and/or Whimsy that can constantly be buffed feels good. This card can definitely fit into hyper aggro Nox decks.

Thanks for reading! Keep an eye out for the rest of our analysis as more cards come out and be sure to revisit our previous impressions for the set.