A Curious Journey Impressions: Galio

A Curious Journey LoR Spoilers Day 4

Demacia has called for aid and the ferocious Formidable reveals of today are ready to smash its foes.

My name is Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and the large lad Galio is here to crash down with some rallying goodness.

Let’s check him out.

Here are the new cards from today’s reveal package: 

• Galio (Demacia champion)
• Shield of Durand (Demacia spell + Galio’s champ spell)
• Mountain Drake (Demacia follower)
• Gorlith the Unscaleable (Demacia follower)
• Winds of War (Demacia spell)

Galio

• Galio (level 1)
  • 7 mana 0|8 champion
  • Spellshield, Formidable
  • When I’m summoned, grant other allies +0|+3.
  • Round End: Your allies have 25+ total health

So my first thought is that extremely large clunky finishers have to do some pretty ridiculously impressive things to deserve their mana cost. The seven mana point is the same speed at which Nautilus and Sion get to come down, and those fools end games *fast*.

The question then is does Galio measure up? Well the first reason he might, is that wonderful little keyword Spellshield. It will always take at least two things to get Galio of a board, no instant death to Vengeance or Minimorph for him.

• Galio (level 2)
  • 7 mana 0|9 champion
  • Spellshield, Formidable
  • When I’m summoned, grant other allies +0|+3.
  • Each round, the first time an ally takes damage, Rally.

He will drop some stats in combat, but starting as effectively an 8/8 is nothing to scoff at. Past that, if you can get him leveled, which in his archetype should not be particularly difficult, he will end games extremely quickly. 

This card Rallies on your opponent’s turn, which is already insane. But it will also rally again on yours. Three attacks in two turns does not turn out well for opponents, as Taric has shown us.

We’ll have to find a refined build of this archetype to know exactly where the power level is going to be, but I would not be surprised to see Galio kicking butts and taking names in the new set.

Shield of Durand

• Shield of Durand
  • 3 mana Burst spell
  • Grant an ally +0|+3. At the next Round Start, grant it +0|+2.

Excuse me? I know the card is called “Galio’s” Shield of Durand but are we sure that it doesn’t just belong to Fiora?

Don’t get me wrong, this is a powerful buff and combat trick in the Formidable archetype, but if you stick this on Demacia’s number one duelist things are going to get out of hand.

This kind of effect terrifies me. However, though I walk through the valley of Fiora nonsense I will fear no toxic metagames for my Vengeances and my Minimorphs they shall comfort me.

Mountain Drake

• Mountain Drake
  • 5 mana 0|6
  • Fury, Formidable
  • Fury grants me +0|+2 instead of +1|+1.

This friend is just an absolute stat stick for an archetype that definitely wanted one. Mountain Drake could be one of the keys to leveling Galio in a timely fashion and closing games out with Rallies.

I could also potentially see it grabbing some fringe play with Shyvanna, but I think that deck will generally prefer Screeching Dragon.

Six power on entry is nice, but with less ways to heal, Shyvanna needs her followers ready to strike with their full power when Dragon’s Clutch hits play.

Gorlith the Unscalable

• Gorlith the Unscalable
  • 9 mana 0|10
  • Tough, Formidable
  • When I’m summoned, swap Health and your Nexus’ Health. I can’t be blocked by enemies with less Health than me.

On one hand swinging through with a twenty power unblockable absolute unit is kind of a hilarious dream scenario.

On the other nine mana is an awful lot, and trying to get there with all of your nexus health intact is a pretty big ask. And this still get’s hit by any big removal spells your opponent’s might be packing.

There’s one thing we should make sure we don’t forget though. Soraka goes impressively well with this new formidable archetype, and she brings a certain Broadbacked Protector with her to the party.

I can’t quite tell yet whether this will be meme or dream, but you can bet that I’m going to be trying it out. Having a solid alternate win condition to Star Spring has been one of the things holding Soraka back, and Gorlith here might present that.

Winds of War

• Winds of War
  • 3 mana Slow spell
  • Heal an ally to full. Then, that ally and an enemy strike each other.

Did I mention something about Soraka and Formidable doing some impressively nonsensical things together? Because I’m reasonably sure this is another big strike in that column.

This will do just fine with Galio and his people on their own, but the synergy levels get scary with the healing deck in the mix.

That said, let’s remember this is a slow speed spell, and you’ll probably be casting it on a damaged unit. While this is a powerful interaction tool there are a lot of things your opponent can do to make this go wrong, so be careful the timing you look for to commit to this line.

Bonus Deck: Release the Raka

Deck code: CEBQEBIABIGAIAYJEMZTINYCAEAAWGQDAIBQABQOAQCQACIPCEJQCAYJHQBACBAABAAQKAAD

[Release the Raka deck details]

How many different ways can we find to win the game in one deck? Well, Star Spring is pretty traditional, but we can do far better than that.

What if we just started attacking with an eight power Soraka on turn four, courtesy of Durand Architect’s Formidable granting power?

Galio or Jarvan will also bring things to a close in rapid order if they manage to get hit with the level up stick. And of course, hiding at the top end is my boy Gorlith. When all else fails, heal up and swing for twenty.

As you can tell from the ratios this concept is obviously unrefined, but the core idea of it seems powerful. This is definitely going on my to-test list as the new season kicks its way into gear.

Thanks for reading! For more impressions, check out the rest of our reveal articles for A Curious Journey.