Rise of the Underworlds LoR Card Impressions: Variety Reveal (Twisted Treeline, Fabled Poro, and More)

Rise of the Underworlds Spoilers Day 4

If yesterday was a few archetype-defining cards today is the flip side of that.

I’m Jordan “WhatAmI” Abronson and I’m coming out to you with an absolute blort-load of synergistic cards covering different bases all over Runeterra. Let’s check it out.

We’re revealing new Rise of the Underworld cards every day on our spoiler page.

To build decks with the new cards, head to our Deck Builder.

Here are the new LoR cards from the Rise of the Underworld expansion:

• Twisted Treeline (Shadow Isles Landmark)
• Astral Fox (Shadow Isles follower)
• Abominable Guardian (Freljord follower)
• Fabled Poro (Freljord follower)
• Defiant Dance (Ionia spell)
• Thorned Blade (Noxus spell)
• Atakhan, Bringer of Ruin (Noxus follower)
• Heavens Align (Targon spell)
• Starlit Epiphany (Targon spell)
• Field Promotion (Demacia spell)

Twisted Treeline

• Twisted Treeline
  • 3 mana Landmark
  • Text: Once I’ve seen 3 Fearsome allies attack, destroy me to summon Vilemaw.

Three mana for a 6|6 Fearsome is about the best deal you could ever ask for. The question is how reliably can we meet the condition and will we be able to do it in time for such a large threat to still be highly impactful?

While we can certainly nut-draw and get this active on turn three with a bunch of 1 drop Fearsome units, we’re probably not doing that consistently.

That means that even in a deck built to make this work it is likely not actually popping until turn four or five, and not getting its first attack until six or seven.

That might still be just on the edge of being fast enough for competitive viability but my gut says that Vilemaw will once more not quite make the cut.

Perhaps the new Lurker one drop paired up with Baccai Reaper will prove me wrong though, and this card’s design is so cool I cannot wait to test it out.

Astral Fox

• Astral Fox
  • 4 mana 3|3 Fearsome
  • Text: Play: Kill an ally to deal 3 to the enemy Nexus.

• Symmetry in Stars
  • 0 mana Skill
  • Text: Kill an ally to deal 3 to the enemy Nexus.

So my first reaction here is “They stapled Noxian Fervor to a fearsome body, aggro players rejoice.” But one of the biggest strengths of Fervor is that it is fast speed. That lets it be a powerful reaction and stop threats of lifesteal from our opponents.

This looks like a potentially powerful tool, but it’s competing for the same slots as Doombeast and Imperial Demolitionist and one side as well as Spirit Leech on the other. The middle ground is a dangerous place to be, so while this effect is very powerful it may be tough for it to find a home.

Abominable Guardian

• Abominable Guardian
  8 mana 5|5
  Text: Round Start: If you have 2+ Yetis, summon me from hand and create a copy of me in your deck. Play: Draw a Yeti.

If Avarosan Trapper makes 1 mana 5|5’s then a 0 mana 5|5 that can double as card advantage if you make it to eight mana must be super powerful right?

Well, while zero mana is kind of the perfect number for any card, trying to get the effect we’re looking for online is rather difficult.

With the only seriously playable Yetis being from Avarosan Trapper and Ancient Yeti we’re not really going to even potentially get this effect online until turn 5 at the earliest.

Since it’s a Round Start effect that means we aren’t being abominably guarded until the beginning of turn six.

I think that might be a bit too late for a vanilla 5|5 to be a sufficient board swing to build around. And while jamming this earlier sounds really cool, I don’t think it’s going to be worth the cost of having Yeti Yearling in your deck.

It seems likely that if this card is good it will be because of some busted synergy it gets to use rather than its base effect.

I’m looking specifically at Iterative Improvement, Stalking Shadows, and Lissandra here. Seems likely to be more meme than dream, but definitely a cool concept.

Fabled Poro

• Fabled Poro
  • 4 mana 2|5
  • Text: When I’m summoned grant all allied Poros a random keyword.

I absolutely love this little guy. There are going to be random games where Lifesteal or Elusive is rolled and all the little Poros giggle in murderous glee.

That said, this is an extremely random effect for a low-tier archetype. A board full of 1|1 scouts does not a Jubilant Poro make. Expect to see some fun Poro brews but probably not hitting the mark for competitive viability.

Defiant Dance

• Defiant Dance
  • 4 mana Slow Spell
  • Text: Recall a unit. Blade Dance 1.

I honestly can’t decide looking at this card if it is unreasonably busted or completely unplayable. On one hand, the base effect seems pretty bad and four mana is an awful lot to ask for a slow spell.

On the other, I’m kind of already having nightmares about what an Azir can do with this card to my poor innocent turn four board.

This one is going to have to go in the “needs testing,” column because as far as I can tell it only potentially fits in one deck and that deck is already extremely tight.

It could be a powerful tool there so as much as I hate to talk about that deck getting more options we’ll have to look into it.

Thorned Blade

• Thorned Blade
  • 4 mana Burst Spell
  • Text: Give an Ally +5|+0 this round

Ok, Battlefury and Elixir of Wrath had a lovechild and this might be my favorite card of the set so far.

Situational uber-decimate plus the ability to potentially level a Rek’Sai on turn four? Sign-me-up.

Atakhan, Bringer of Ruin

• Atakhan, Bringer of Ruin
  • 10 mana 5|12 Overwhelm
  • Text: Attack: Increase my Power by the total Power of all allies.

So assuming this crazy fool sees himself we are starting with a 10|12 Overwhelm and going up from there. If this swing successfully most games are just going to end on the spot.

Unfortunately, that’s a pretty big if.

On turn ten you are dropping all of your mana on something that can be Stunned, Hushed, Frostbitten, Recalled, and generally made fun of by interactive decks.

As cool as this concept is, Aurelion Sol it ain’t. I suspect that will relegate it to the meme rather than the dream.

Heavens Aligned

• Heavens Aligned
  • 1 mana Focus Spell
  • Text: Daybreak: Create a random non-champion Nightfall card in hand. Nightfall: Create a random non-champion Daybreak card in hand.

Wait, Riot canon confirms Leona/Diana and then also gives us support for the archetype? Be still my heart.

Silliness aside, this seems like a powerful enabler for the nightfall deck as well as a potentially cool cantrip in a Leona/Diana/Ravhun, invoke-centric, midrange pile.

Those decks both tend to be pretty tight so we’ll see if we can find the room, but this is an awesome concept and definitely has a shot.

Starlit Epiphany

• Starlit Epiphany
  • 3 mana Burst Spell
  • Text: Invoke. If you have a Celestial ally, replace your deck with 20 copies of Behold the Infinite.

Ok, see, this is how you do a meme. It knows what’s up, it says so right on the cover, and it is absolutely blasting flavor.

If we wanted 20 copies of Behold the Infinite, we would put any in our deck to start with.

To anyone who is looking at this and going “but wait! it answers Lissandra,”.

I don’t have time to get into the myriad of different problems with that theory so all I will say here is no, it really, really doesn’t.

Field Promotion

• Field Promotion
  • 2 mana Burst spell
  • Text: The next time you play a unit this round, grant it Scout. It’s now an elite.

Ok, Riot, fess up, does Swimstrim have one of your designers held hostage? Do we need to send a rescue party, start talking about asylum?

This is potentially an absolutely busted combo tool with any of Zed/Riven/Rek’Sai, or, I dunno, any unit in the entire game with Elusive?

I mean, I look forward to playing with this and trying to push the crazy limits of what it can do, but oh man is seeing a turn three Scout Zed going to not be fun.

Pack your Mystic Shots y’all, we gonna’ need them.

Bonus Deck: Emoosives 2.0

This one has always kind of straddled the border between meme and dream and I honestly can’t say this is going to be any different. Holy Demacia is there a lot of power here though.

Deck Code: CECQEBAAA4GAIAIABQKCENQBAMBBIAIDAAHACAICBECACAICCYBAIAADBEBACAAVGMAQEAAIAEAQCAAN

[See Emoosives 2.0 deck details]

First of all, we’re just a standard Elite pressure deck with some solid Ionian disruption tools and finishers thrown in for spice. Add to that the unreal combo potential that Field Promotion can create and there’s some serious potential starting to brew up in here.

Garen or Zed leveling the turn they come down, Greathorn Companion accidentally ghosting by and winning the game on its own, and the age-old tradition of Cithria the Bold backed by rally sitting at the top end? Sounds like a recipe for success to me.

We’re revealing new Rise of the Underworld cards every day at our spoiler page. To build decks with the new cards, head to our Deck Builder.

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