Forces From Beyond Impressions: Gwen

Forces From Beyond Impressions LoR Spoilers Day 4: Gwen

The wait is over and Gwen has finally been released to thunderous applause.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and today we’re unveiling a new keyword alongside the powerhouse of a champion that showcases it.

To see the rest of the Forces From Beyond reveals, head to our Spoiler page where they’ll be revealed each day until its official release.

If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.

New Keyword: Hallowed

NEW KEYWORD: HALLOWED

A seamstress is nothing without the threads that hold their pieces together. The strongest thread? Why, friendship of course! pic.twitter.com/fMcJmNKVQl

— Legends of Runeterra (@PlayRuneterra) July 16, 2022

Gwen

Ok, so let’s start with the part where Gwen’s floor is absolutely insane and go from there. This is a high-pressure, hard-to-remove body, with a punish even if you can get rid of it, that will be Doom Beasting your opponent every attack token. That’s, that’s just kind of nuts all on its own.

Then we can talk about the level up where once she has dealt 10+ damage, likely two, but possibly one attack, the drain goes up even higher. She will be threatening burn lethal while demanding blocks and making it nigh-impossible for any reasonable opponent to race you.

This looks like a card that will be nuts in aggro, and potentially quite solid in midrange as well as control decks. I think the only real question with Gwen is what her best deck is going to be because this champion is an absolute powerhouse of a card.

Thread the Needle

This seems like most of the time it will be an over-costed Single Combat. But with a champion that is already this good it’s worth having its champion spell be a bit mid.

That said, this will surprise folks and get some solid trades and interactions. Not main deck worthy likely, but a solid card.

Strike up the Band + Ghastly Band

This card is *really* interesting. So, it does nothing to the board state, but it can solidly shut down an attack or push two damage. And beyond that every attack for the rest of the game your first unit will get plus two attack.

This is obviously a solid Gwen enabler, the question is where else it can fit in. Kalista, maybe Hecarim, possibly even some combo Hallowed deck that just wants to turbo pump a single unit. There are a bunch of possibilities here and I am quite curious to explore them.

Ghostly Paramour

This one feels like it is probably a little on the low end of the power scale compared to the Gwen support we have seen so far.

I could potentially see it getting slots if we are either spamming hallowed or weak to aggro, but it definitely does not make my first cut.

Formal Invitation

So, maybe I am missing something here, but this mostly seems like a low power three mana draw two. This isn’t Glimpse Beyond, and it probably isn’t even Stalking Shadows, so I will be surprised if this can find a home.

If it does it will probably be something combo based that wants a specific follower spammed out a bunch. Definitely more meme than dream but Aloof Travelers/Harrowing combo will have a great time with this card.

Phantom Butler

This card is just an absolute bundle of value that I immediately want to play in basically any Shadow Isles aggro deck I am putting together. It’s early difficult to block pressure that perma-buffs your units when it dies. Sign me up for three copies of this right out of the gate.

Eternal Dancers

This card is so powerful, but six mana is an awful lot, and it has to survive to attack to do anything. Granted it has six health so it will be doing that an awful lot of the time, but stuns, Vengeances, and Silence effects are all things that it will have to contend with.

On the other hand, if you can pump this with Hallowed it will consistently be bringing back whatever you want it to from Grizzled Ranger to a dead champion, to a Used Cask Salesman. I would not be surprised to see this as a one or two-of finisher in some sort of hallowed deck.

Boisterous Host

One mana 2/1’s with a solid effect have been my jam since the beginning of this game and will continue to be as long as I am playing. Aggro, control, combo, whatever you need this card is a solid addition and I suspect to be playing it an awful lot.

Bonus Deck: ScissorDoggo

Deck Code: CECAGBAHF43GOAIEAUBQCAIFGEBAMBIMDQCAGAIFBMMTAAQEA4BDWAQGAUIBUAICAUCAEAQEA5WXSAIEAUIA

[See ScissorDoggo deck details]

This deck aims to take the old slay theory of Nasus/Thresh and amp it up with Gwen’s new and powerful Hallow Mechanic. Whenever you kill Hallow units you effectively double pump your doggo, making him level at truly unreasonable rates.

A twenty power Nasus swinging for lethal or dropping an Atrocity on a full health nexus used to be something that happened occasionally and mostly accidentally. With this build this dream will occur with alarming frequency.

Not to mention that Gwen herself is a threat that will demand an answer. And every answer that stops Scissors McGee from going wild all over your poor opponent’s nexus is one more answer that can’t hit Nasus. Power up your Egyptian God and deliver a massive *bonk* to end those games in style.

Stay tuned for more reveal articles! To build your own deck, head to our Deck Builder.

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