Legends of Runeterra: Piltover & Zaun Region Guide

Legends of Runeterra: Piltover & Zaun Region Guide

If you want to join the visionaries and innovators of Piltover & Zaun…you’ve come to the right place! In this guide, we’ll cover the champions of Piltover & Zaun, its signature mechanics, as well as the synergies it has with other regions.

By the end of this article, our goal is that you’ll really understand Piltover & Zaun as a region and be able to create your own decks with our Legends of Runeterra deck builder. Check out our other articles that explore Bilgewater, Demacia, Freljord, Ionia, Noxus, Shadow Isles, and Targon.

Signature Characteristics

“Piltover, also known as the City of Progress, is a thriving, progressive city whose power and influence is on the rise. It is Valoran’s cultural center, where art, craftsmanship, trade and innovation walk hand in hand. Its power comes not through military might, but the engines of commerce and forward thinking. Situated on the cliffs above the district of Zaun and overlooking the ocean, fleets of ships pass through its titanic sea-gates, bringing goods from all over the world. The wealth this generates has given rise to an unprecedented boom in the city’s growth. Piltover has – and still is – reinventing itself as a city where fortunes can be made and dreams can be lived. Burgeoning merchant clans fund development in the most incredible endeavors: grand artistic follies, esoteric hextech research, and architectural monuments to their power. With ever more inventors delving into the emergent lore of hextech, Piltover has become a lodestone for the most skilled craftsmen the world over.” from Universe.

“Zaun, also known as the City of Iron and Glass, is a large, undercity district, lying in the deep canyons and valleys threading Piltover. What light reaches below is filtered through fumes leaking from the tangles of corroded pipework and reflected from the stained glass of its industrial architecture. Zaun and Piltover were once united, but are now separate, yet symbiotic societies. Though it exists in perpetual smogged twilight, Zaun thrives, its people vibrant and its culture rich. Piltover’s wealth has allowed Zaun to develop in tandem; a dark mirror of the city above. Many of the goods coming to Piltover find their way into Zaun’s black markets, and hextech inventors who find the restrictions placed upon them in the city above too restrictive often find their dangerous research welcomed in Zaun. Unfettered development of volatile technologies and reckless industry has rendered whole swathes of Zaun polluted and dangerous. Streams of toxic runoff stagnate in the city’s lower reaches, but even here people find a way to exist and prosper.” – from Universe.

In Legends of Runeterra, the Piltover and Zaun become one and work together to become the most creative region in the game. It’s one of the trickiest but rewarding factions to play because you’ll often have to think on your feet to create winning solutions with what’s given to you in order to win.

Although you may have certain ideas in mind when you enter your game with a P&Z deck, you’ll need to adapt based on what your experiments generate and the tools at your disposal. Anything can happen when you’re wielding the most cutting edge technology in Runeterra.

Piltover & Zaun Updates for the Rising Tides Expansion

The first Legends of Runeterra expansion, the Rising Tides, brought ten new cards including one champion, Vi.

We’ve written a separate article on our Master player’s first impressions on Vi so be sure to check that out to learn more about her.

Part of P&Z’s appeal as a region has been its ability to do creative and crazy things in an explosive manner.

With the Rising Tides expansion, they received a ton of tools related to drawing more cards or providing benefits for drawing cards.

This opens up more potential combo deck strategies and versatility for players who like to think on their feet.

Cards like Patrol Wardens, Gotcha!, and Suit Up! provide mana discounts if you draw into them (just be sure to mulligan them away from your opening hand).

These discounts synergize with cards that provide additional Fleeting draws as you’ll have more flexibility in being able to play the cards instead of letting them go to waste (Fleeting cards are discarded at the end of a round if unused).

Bilgewater, the newest LoR region, brings new Fleeting cards to the mix with Pool Shark, Pick a Card, and Brash Gambler.

These mechanics naturally synergize very well with Vi who gains Power for each card you play while she’s in your hand or on your board.

Outside of Bilgewater, Vi can also be paired well with Lee Sin, the newest Ionian champion.

Here’s an example of a this new champion combination with a decklist created by EG Swim:

Deck code: CECACAQEBABACARXHEBQCBA3GQ5AIAQCAEBQMCIDAEAQEMICAIBAKCQCAECAMEAA

With inclusions such as Ki Guardian, Flash of Brilliance, and Deep Meditation, you can consistently enable both champions simultaneously with draws and spell casts.

Followers like Eye of the Dragon, Claws of the Dragon, and Plaza Guardian, help round out the deck with more units that synergize well with spells.

The deck may be tricky to play at first since you have to be able to effectively plan out your turns in advance.

However, if you pull it off, you’ll be rewarded with huge value turns heading into the mid game.

General Piltover & Zaun Overview

The following sections were created at the time of the core set’s launch and are meant for newer players learning about how Piltover & Zaun works.

Be sure to check our meta report if you’re looking for the best Piltover & Zaun decks.

Mechanics and Playstyle

Use Spells to Do…Anything!

P&Z is the premier spell-slinging region of Legends of Runeterra. Whether you want to create, destroy, or augment, there’s a spell in your arsenal that can get the job done.

Some of P&Z’s minions benefit from casting spells or including spells in your deck, such as Corina Veraza, Plaza Guardian, and most notably, Heimerdinger (who we’ll discuss more in the champion section).

Some of your spells, like Scrapdash Assembly and Unlicensed Innovation, will even be able to create minions so you can get away with decks that have much less units than other regions.

Scrapdash Assembly summons 2 1|1’s while Unlicensed Innovation summons a 5|5.

This will allow you to have the deckbuilding flexibility to still maintain a decent board presence and not get overrun while you execute your spell shenanigans.

Blow Stuff Up

P&Z has the largest number of burn in the game, meaning cards like Statikk Shock and Trueshot Barrage that can deal immediate direct damage to units or straight to their Nexus Health.

This gives them a lot of flexibility with playing defensively or offensively depending if they need removal or face damage. We’ll explore this theme further when we get to the champion sections for Jinx and Ezreal.

To also play into this theme, P&Z also has a good amount of discard mechanics. After all, the citizens of Zaun are known to repurpose junk into gadgets and tools.

With cards like Zaunite Urchin, Jury-rig, and Augmented Experimenter, you can creature treasure out of trash.

So Many Options…

There isn’t a lot of card draw in Legends of Runeterra in general and most regions don’t need a lot because both players draw a card each round. However, for those of you out there that like having a ton of options with fuller hands, P&Z is for you.

Cards like Rummage and Progress Day! allow you to cycle your hand to find the cards you need or give you a refill in a pinch during a long match.

If you’re able to survive the early game, you can outlast a ton of decks through resource attrition and having more flexibility in the mid to late game.

Adapt and Replicate

Piltover and Zaun offer an incredible amount of versatility as you can adjust on the fly and adapt based on the opponent you’re facing. This is made possible by cards like Counterfeit Copies and Parade Electrorig which allow you to make copies of cards and units on the board respectively.

When paired with P&Z’s incredible card draw engines, you can increase your odds of finding the solutions you need by copying and cycling through your deck.

P&Z is all about creativity – by using these mechanics, the possibilities are endless for the combos and general amount of value that you just can’t get with other regions.

Reload Mana

Being a hub of technology and innovation, it makes sense that P&Z would have an advanced energy infrastructure. As a result, the region has access to cards like Eager Apprentice and Flash of Brilliance.

In Legends of Runeterra, you have an additional 3 mana slots dedicated to spell casting. This is usually filled up by unused mana from the previous round.

However, P&Z allows you to refill this pool on the fly. Combine this with other signature mechanics like copying cards and card draw to really give you the ability to make big brain plays in one round.

Piltover & Zaun Champions

In this section we’ll discuss the Piltover & Zaun champions in order from lowest mana cost to highest (we covered Vi earlier in the article!).

If you’re unfamiliar with how champions work, check out our LoR mechanics guide.

The TL: DR is:

1. Every deck can have up to 6 total champions, only 3 of the same kind.
2. Champions fulfill conditions to level up.
3. When they level up, they become stronger and gain new abilities. Leveling up causes all copies to level up.
4. Only one copy of a specific champion can be on the board at once. If you draw other copies while a champion is on the board, they will transform into a spell form until that champion is removed. Playing the spell will shuffle the champion back into your deck instead of going to the graveyard.

Teemo

Legends of Runeterra does a great job of capturing a champion’s feel and mechanics from League of Legends. Unfortunately, for the foes of Teemo decks, this holds true.

The infamous Yordle is an Elusive champion 1|1 champion, meaning that he can’t be blocked by creatures that don’t have the Elusive effect themselves.

This is key because every time Teemo strikes the enemy’s Nexus, he 5 plants Poison Puffcaps at random in their deck.

As the enemy player draws cards, they have a chance to draw a number of Poison Puffcaps. Because the enemy draws another card each time they get a Poison Puffcap, they can chain multiple Puffcaps at a time.

The higher the number, the more likely they are to be drawn. Forr each one they draw, they will take 1 damage.

This makes Teemo one of the most annoying champions in LoR since unlike other card games, you draw every round instead of just on your turn. Every time he hits you he’ll just keep adding more Puffcaps and P&Z provides other cards like Puffcap Peddler to give you other sources of Puffcaps.

Teemo Leveled Up

When Satan, I mean Teemo levels up, he’ll DOUBLE the number of Poison Puffcaps in the enemy deck instead of just adding 5.

This puts Teemo’s foes on a clock. Even if they manage to kill Teemo the damage may have been done enough to the point they have to either find healing or kill you before they die themselves.

Overall, Teemo is great in an aggressive leaning deck that does a bit of damage early while trapping the enemy deck with a lot of shrooms. Afterward, you run out of gas you try to stall while the enemy kills itself drawing Puffcaps.

Teemo’s Champion Spell

If Teemo is already in play and you draw another copy, you’ll receive Teemo’s Mushroom Cloud. No surprise here, it’s just a 1-cost Burst spell that adds even more Puffcaps to your opponent’s deck.

Ezreal

Ezreal is a 3-cost 1|3 Elusive unit that can continually generate Mystic Shot when he hits the enemy Nexus.

Keep in mind, however, that Ezreal’s version of Mystic Shot is Fleeting, meaning that it would disappear from your hand if you don’t use it.

This ability makes Ezreal a versatile champion that works well in aggro and midrange decks but can still play a more control style, especially decks that benefit from playing many spells.

Since Ezreal levels up by targeting enemy minions, you’ll be able to fulfill this condition with spells from your deck in combination with Mystic Shots from Ezreal.

Ezreal Leveled Up

Once Ezreal levels up, he becomes a win condition on his own by making any spell you cast deal 1 damage to the enemy Nexus.

If you were playing defensively, this lets you slowly grind the opponent out while still playing defensively.

If you’re playing aggressively, this lets you quickly close out the game by adding 2 damage to all your burn spells.

Ezreal’s Champion Spell

Similar to his regular self on Summoner’s Rift, Ezreal just keeps firing those Mystic Shots. As such, his champion spell is also just another Mystic Shot that you can use to level him up or keep applying pressure with the +2 damage provided by his leveled up ability.

Jinx

Want to embrace the reckless side of Zaun and see the world burn? Jinx is the champ for you. She starts off as a 4-cost 4|3 with Quick Attack, meaning that in combat, her damage will apply to her blocker first instead of at the same time.

Similar to her identity in League of Legends, this means she’s great on offense but not the best defender since 3 Health isn’t much in relation to the Power most cards at her cost will have.

To level up, Jinx needs to be on the board when your hand is empty, so she fits well with discard mechanics such as those found in P&Z. It’s a somewhat high risk, high reward playstyle but hey, that’s Jinx for ya.

Jinx Leveled Up

Just like hitting an item power spike on Summoner’s Rift, Jinx really takes off when she levels up in LoR.

She upgrades to being a 5|4 and draws one card each turn so that you can keep having gas while top decking as an aggro deck. This lets you find the last amount of burn you need to close out the game.

She also creates a Super Mega Death Rocket! the first time she sees you empty your hand each round. Super Mega Death Rocket! is a very potent burn spell that deals 4 damage to the enemy Nexus and splashes 1 damage to all other enemies on the field.

Jinx’s Champion Spell

If you top deck a Get Excited! while having a leveled up Jinx out, you can easily empty your hand and burn the opponent for 7 damage for only 5 mana in one round.

Heimerdinger

If you like spell-slinging but prefer longer, controlled matches Heimerdinger is the P&Z champ for you. Every time you cast a spell while he’s on board, he’ll create a free turret based on the mana cost of the spell you cast.

The turrets are all Fleeting so if you don’t have room on the board, they’ll go to waste unless you can create space during that round.

There’s a ton of them so we won’t be showing them in image form, but you can see them all here by checking out Heimerdinger’s card on our site.

Here’s the list of his turrets and their stats/effects. The number after the “MK” represents the mana cost of the spell that generates the turret:

• MK0: Windup Shredder
  • 0|1 with Challenger
• MK1: Wrenchbot
  • 1|1
• MK2: Evolution Turret
  • 2|1 with Tough
• MK3: ApexTurret
  • 3|1 with Fearsome
• MK4: Apex Turret
  • 4|1 with Fearsome
• MK5: Rocket Blaster
  • 5|1 with Quick Attack
• MK6: Floor-B-Gone
  • 6|1 with Elusive
• MK7: Armored Stomper
  • 7|1 with Barrier
• T-Hex (8-cost)
  • 8|8

Outside of T-hex, Heimerdinger’s turrets are all pretty easy to remove (outside of Tough and Barrier) since they only have 1 Health. However, that changes once you’ve summoned at least 12 mana worth of turrets and Heimerdinger levels up.

Heimerdinger Leveled Up

When Heimerdinger levels up, he becomes a 2|4 and begins to create Upgraded Turrets, meaning that all of his turrets will be +1|+1 on top of their normal state.

If you’re able to keep the spells coming, Heimerdinger is an awesome win condition since you’ll continue to create 2 for 1 value with every spell with an endless army of turrets that your opponent has to keep finding removal methods for.

Heimerdinger’s Champion Spell

Heimer has access to one of the best champion spell pairings in LoR. Progress Day! allows you to refill your hand with 3 cards at a discounted rate and will also spawn a 8|8 or 9|9 (if he’s leveled up) T-Hex.

This is an insane swing in the late game, especially since you may be able to play even more spells and create even more turrets after that.

Synergies with Other Factions

In Legends of Runeterra there are many, many synergies to take advantage of by strategically pairing with other regions. In this section we’ll be discussing a few of them for Piltover and Zaun but there are definitely way more.

Use our Deck Builder to experiment and let us know in the comment section below what you think would work!

Ionia (Ezreal + Zed)

Ionia, when combined with Piltover and Zaun, has a large number of Elusive units together. Together, they can summon a lot of units like Navori Conspirator and Windfarer Hatchling that cannot be blocked against the majority of factions.

This allows them to play aggressively against slower decks and close the game out against decks that lack a lot of removal and Elusive units of their own.

With the Stuns and Recall effects that Ionia has in spades covering your Elusive units, you can make it very difficult for an opponent to defend themselves.

Zed can help provide an aggressive early start while Ezreal can provide you with some extra oomph in the mid to late game with direct damage from his Mystic Shots and leveled up ability.

Piltover & Zaun (Jinx + Draven)

If want to be aggressive and destroy your opponent as fast as you can, play Draven and Jinx. These champions combine to fit in a reckless discard deck. They use cards that trigger when discarded to play out their hand quickly.

Draven generates buff cards called Spinning Axe that push extra damage and help you quickly discard other cards in your hand.

Once you run out of cards, Jinx triggers (when leveled up) and starts generating large burn spells like Super Mega Death Rocket that you can use to push through even more damage.

This explosive combination brings out the reckless side of both Noxus and Piltover & Zaun. It may be inconsistent at times, but it will definitely be a fun archetype that can straight-up run people over with the right draws.

Closing Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed our deep dive on Piltover and Zaun! Check out our other articles that explore Bilgewater, Demacia, Freljord, Ionia, Noxus, Shadow Isles, and Targon. LoR is a brand new game and we’re still figuring it out ourselves, so if you have any suggestions for decks or other feedback, let us know in the comment section below.

Be sure to check out our Legends of Runeterra site and subscribe to our email list to keep up with all the latest LoR content.