Guardians of the Ancient LoR Card Impressions: Countdown Support (The Clock Hand, Imagined Possibilities, and More)

Day 2 of Guardians of the Ancient Reveals

Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson here to give you the low-down on today’s gaze into the future of Runeterra.

Is there magic? Is there mystery? Are there, perchance, landmarks? Let’s find out together.

The new Guardians of the Ancients cards will be revealed every morning at Mobalytics so be sure to keep up with the latest cards!

Here are the new Shurima Cards from Guardians of the Ancients:

• Preservationist (follower)
• The Clock Hand (follower)
• Instant Century (spell)
• Imagined Possibilities (spell)
• Time in a Bottle (spell)

For more expert impressions, be sure to also check out Swim’s video!

Preservationist

• Preservationist
  • 5 mana 4|4
  • Text: Play: Advance an allied landmark three rounds.

At five mana a-clockwork-giraffe here has a lot of big boots to fill.

They’re going to have to measure up to plays like Thresh, Avarosan Hearthguard, and Ruin Runner. So how do they measure up?

Well, a 4|4 body isn’t great, but it’s also nothing to sneeze at either.

Four health is historically the barrier where something gets at least moderately frustrating for your average control deck to deal with.

As far as its effect goes, and this is going to become a theme today, I think the only landmarks we have right now that are worth investing this much mana in are the Frozen Thrall cycle.

If you played a Thrall on one or two then this friend plus any other Advance effect will get you an 8|8 Overwhelm body attacking on turn five, and that’s pretty scary.

Will it be worth the investment? Only time and additional support cards will tell.

But I’d keep an eye on those treetops to see what comes crashing down through them.

Nibbled to death by carnivorous giraffes is an epitaph best avoided.

The Clock Hand/Instant Century

• The Clock Hand
  • 8 mana 4|7 follower
  • Text: When I’m summoned create two Instant Centuries in hand

• Instant Century
  • 0 mana Focus Spell
  • Text: Summon a random landmark with Countdown, or advance a landmark four rounds.

Whoof, from five mana all the way up to eight.

This big boy had better be looking to end games in a hurry if he wants any chance of seeing play.

But here’s the thing.

Recent experience has taught us that due to our friendly neighborhood ice queen eight mana is a very dangerous breakpoint.

This is another card with absolutely terrifying Lissandra synergy, and the possibilities I’m imagining are not my favorite.

That said it will also be interesting to see if there are other long-countdown support cards incoming for Robo here to power up.

A variety of endgame finishers is something we’ve always been fans of in Runeterra, so hopefully, that trend will continue.

Imagined Possibilities

• Imagined Possibilities
  • 1 mana Focus Spell
  • Text: Create a random landmark with Countdown in hand or Advance your landmarks one round.

After the first two got me so hyped up I’ll admit this one feels like a little bit of a letdown.

Paying a whole card to get something, or even some things one turn early just doesn’t seem all that impressive even at one mana.

This feels like it ends up being the 41st card in a lot of landmark decks.

Maybe I’m wrong and there will be such a powerful landmark ability incoming that we will just want every single spell we can get our hands on to rush it down, but right now I’m just not seeing it.

Time in a Bottle

• Time in a Bottle
  • 2 mana Focus Spell
  • Text: Predict and Advance an allied landmark two rounds.

See, now this is more like it. Two rounds is a LOT more than one.

Functionally, this is going to always give whatever you are counting down to a full extra attack step, which is good enough to be worth investing a card in methinks.

Beyond that, you are also getting a Predict off which will help shape your next couple turns of the game.

I would be very surprised if this does not see play in whatever landmark-focused powerhouses Shurima has coming.

Potential decklist with today’s cards

Last but not least, we have a decklist from our Deck Builder.

Here’s a sample of a fun Taliyah/Lissandra deck because I am a glutton for punishment!

It features Clockwork Curator, Preservationist, The Clock Hand, and Time in a Bottle to really accelerate the deck’s landmark package.

Deck Code: CEBQIBABAECQMDQFAQDQ2IRKFREQCAIBCQBAGBAHD5BGQAQBAEVDEAA

[See Can’t Stop Me Now deck details]

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask WhatAmI during his streams (around 10AM PST basically every day).

WhatAmI streams at twitch.tv/xxwhatamixx around 10AM PST every day