Legends of Runeterra: 10 Best Cards From Beyond The Bandlewood

Following on the heels of Call of the Mountain and Empires of the Ascended, Legend of Runeterra‘s Beyond the Bandlewood expansion is now out. This set brings a new region, Bandle City, to the game, along with several new cards for existing regions. Since the expansion’s release, a number of cards have risen to the top as incredibly strong for certain archetypes.

With a plethora of new cards to unlock and decks to build, it’s important to know which allies, Champions, and spells are worth investing resources in.

10 Pokey Stick

Pokey Stick’s single damage and card draw may not look terribly exciting on paper, but this Bandle City spell packs fantastic value for its cost of two.

At its most basic, Pokey Stick can take out the few attackers with high attack but only one health. Since it’s a fast spell, it can also add one needed damage to take out an enemy during an attack. Furthermore, Pokey Stick is the perfect card for pinging off an opposing character’s barrier or spell shield in preparation for a more damaging card.

9 Otterpus

Bandle City’s one-cost critter may look straight out of a Pokémon game, but it’s a staple threat in the new prankster archetype in Legends of Runeterra. Otterpus’ 1 attack and health may not be particularly intimidating, but its ability to both generate Prank and a spell mana gives it fantastic value.

Playing Otterpus on turn one is great for tempo in spell-heavy decks, and the Prank both reveals information about the enemy hand and can delay their cheaper cards from hitting the table.

8 Piercing Darkness

Without any extra help, Piercing Darkness is already a fairly solid card in the game. However, with help from Senna, Piercing Darkness becomes an incredibly versatile and powerful removal spell.

When Senna changes Piercing Darkness from a slow spell to a fast one, the card becomes a sort of emergency button. With the prevalence of combat trickery in the meta, this spell is a great way to take out a unit or grab some health when the enemy buffs a unit min-attack. Additionally, Veigar lets Piercing Darkness do direct damage to the enemy’s Nexus.

7 Stress Defense

Stress defense is a slightly situational card, but it’s a potential game-changer in a number of fairly common situations. Boosting a unit’s defense to six will put it above most cards and allow it to survive a combat encounter in a pinch.

Furthermore, its boost speed means that it can be played to interrupt certain spells and abilities that rely on the opponent’s health being at or below a certain value. While lowering the unit’s attack means that this card won’t see much play on offense, it melds well with Bandle City’s low-stat units.

6 Hidden Pathways

Hidden Pathways’ cost of five may be offputting for some players, but it’s two mana cheaper if the player has created at least two cards in the game. With plenty of decks creating cards fairly often, this is an extremely easy trigger for players to set off.

At its lower cost of three mana, Hidden Pathways is almost a must-include in any deck that can use it. Drawing power is an extremely rare ability in Legends of Runeterra, and being able to draw two in a pinch helps decks get to their most important cards faster.

5 Senna

Legends of Runeterra already had a Demacian non-Champion version of Senna that synergized with Lucian, but Beyond the Bandlewood introduces a brand new version of the character from the Shadow Isles.

Senna still works well with Lucian, but this version is much more focused on spell damage than combat. Senna is the first card that accelerates spell speed, meaning that she works extremely well with characters like Veigar and Ezrael. Additionally, Senna brings some much-needed power to control decks by creating darkness cards and lowering the cost of spells after she’s leveled up.

4 Minimorph

Minimorph is an extremely powerful spell for the Bandle City region that lets players harness their inner Wayne Szalinski and shrink powerful enemy characters. Minimorph is an amalgamation of effects provided by other cards mixed into an interesting, though situational, package.

Its ability to change an enemy’s stats to three health and three defense works well against powerful or boosted enemies, and the fact that it can hit Champions make it a great trade against high-cost units or Champions with slow level up conditions. Its cost of six is high, but its burst speed makes it a great “gotcha” card in combat.

3 Twisted Catalyzer

Twisted Catalyzer is only going to see play in darkness decks, but his ability makes him one of the most important cards in the archetype. While his stats are fairly average, his ability is incredibly powerful. Every time Twisted Catalyzer strikes, darkness cards everywhere increase their damage by one.

While a single point of damage may not seem terribly strong, Twisted Catalyzer can very easily get at least two stacks of his ability before being defeated. Combined with other darkness boosts like Stilted Robemaker, Veigar and Senna are able to do massive amounts of damage.

2 Caitlyn

Piltover & Zaun’s new Champion, Caitlyn, didn’t invent the trap archetype, but she did make it one of the strongest deck types Legends of Runeterra. Each time she strikes, Caitlyn places two Flashbomb Traps in the top 10 cards of the enemy deck.

When cards with these traps are drawn from the deck, one damage is dealt to a random enemy character. Caitlyn levels up when five traps have been activated, which means that she also counts Puffcaps from Teemo and his stable of support cards. Caitlyn’s low cost and Quick Attack keyword make her a high-value card in an amazing deck.

1 Waste Walker

The landmark deck archetype received several great cards in the Beyond the Bandlewood expansion, and Waste Walker is one of the best. Every time an allied landmark is destroyed, Waste Walker gains one attack and one defense.

The unit’s already respectable three points in each attribute can quickly balloon out of hand, especially since “destroy” counts both straight destruction and landmarks that reach the end of their countdown. Waste Walker works best with Shurima’s new champion Xerath, a god-like being that thrives on destruction.

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