The second champion to join Legends of Runeterra in its upcoming expansion, Guardians of the Ancient, has been revealed today. In collaboration with Mobalytics, Riot Games announced Malphite, and he’s aiming to tie up the Landmark archetype together.
Malphite is a seven mana champion with 6/10 combat stats and the Tough keyword. Malphite reaches his leveled form after you’ve summoned 12+ mana worth of Landmarks.
Once Malphite reaches his leveled form, Malphite gains +1/+1 in combat stats and a new ability which creates an Unstoppable Force spell for you at every round start or when he levels up as long as you have the attack token. Unstoppable Force, based on his League of Legends ultimate ability, is a two mana Fleeting Slow spell that stuns all enemies.
As an imposing menace with high stats and a keyword that makes him difficult to remove, Malphite provides you payoff for running multiple Landmarks to achieve his level two state. Stunning an entire enemy board for two mana is ridiculously powerful, and whenever any opponent will need to play extremely safe after you’ve summoned multiple Landmarks throughout the game.
One key factor to consider with Malphite is that his ability includes Landmarks that you didn’t just play, but summon from abilities. This means if you acquire Roiling Sands from Rock Hopper or Unraveled Earth, and use Taliyah’s duplication ability, all of these summoned Landmarks count towards leveling up Malphite.
This also allows Malphite to pair nicely with the Landmark-focused cards that were revealed yesterday. One key combination to bring up is Blue Sentinel, this is due to its ability to not only provide two mana worth of Landmark summons towards Malphite’s level up, but the Sentinel allows you to summon Malphite one turn sooner if you can time its death properly and benefit from the Crest of Insight.
The current weakness to consider with playing Landmarks is how much mana you need to spend to not develop any units with stats that help you contest the board. However if more Landmark payoff cards are printed, like the recently revealed Stonebreaker, this downside can be circumvented due to its ability to remove enemy minions.
Malphite will join the Shurima champion roster when LoR: Guardians of the Ancient releases May 5.
