As the surprise reveal season after Rise of the Underworld’s release continues, Legends of Runeterra the main focus of this Ruination Event/Champion mini-expansion hybrid has arrived. Riot revealed today Viego, the Ruined King, and that he will be joining the Shadow Isles.
Viego is a five mana champion with 5/4 combat stats and the Fearsome keyword. In addition to this, he has an ability that summons an Encroaching Mist each round the first time he sees an allied unit die. Viego levels up after he has seen allies with 20+ power die. Encroaching Mists are 1/1 Ephemeral Units that grant Viego and other Encroaching Mists everywhere a permanent +1/+1 stat bonus.
Once Viego levels up, he gains +1/+1 in combat stats, retains his Encroaching Mist summon ability, and gains a new Round Start effect. At the start of each round, Viego will try to steal the strongest enemy, if the stolen unit is a champion, it will be killed instead.
In addition to Viego’s reveal, Despair and Camavoran Soldier were also shown off. Despair is a Common four mana Slow spell that has a unit strike your nexus, the targeted card is immediately killed afterwards. Camavoran Soldier is a Common three mana unit with 3/3 combat stats that also has an ability which summons an Encroaching Mist whenever she is summoned.
Viego and every other Shadow Isles card teased in this reveal cycle helps solidify a strong midrange identity once more to the region. Thanks to the ability to spawn Encroaching Mists, Viego has the ability to scale himself and his tokens he summons the ability to scale their stats upwards.
These tokens will turn up the heat against the opponent since their stats will never stop rising. This means the opponent will need to either trade away their health or their board to survive the constant wave of misty minions. Aside from being a menacing threat, each Encroaching Mist death will help Viego reach his second level as they will be quick to die with their Ephemeral keyword.
Once Viego does manage to level up, he provides a powerful removal engine that will be difficult for your opponent to deal with since it’s an automatic trigger at the start of each round. After obtaining board control with Level Two Viego, your opponent will need to spend mana developing into you. This means you’re allowed you to react with an appropriate amount of resources to maintain advantages.
Viego’s notable weakness is his difficulty to level him up. Since Viego needs to be alive to witness his allies’ demise, any removal spent on Viego will reset the process. Despite this, Viego still provides immense value and ability to overrun the opponent thanks to his Mists that he can spawn each round.
The two other cards revealed alongside Viego are very potent in assisting the Ruined King (for Camavoran Soldier) and potentially as standalone resources for control decks (in regards to Despair).
While Despair was shown off as a way to target your own units (which helped leveled up Shyvana and give more level credits to Viego), it can serve as valuable removal against foes. While you lose some nexus health, the ability to destroy any enemy unit at four mana can be backbreaking to certain value oriented decks.
Camavoran Soldier will be a vital partner card for the Ruined King due to her ability to begin strengthening Viego a few turns earlier before he arrives. Aside from improving your future combat stats, the Encroaching Mist can be used as potential fodder for the Crawling Viperwyrm and Camavoran Dragon.
Similar to yesterday’s reveal which teased Ruined Shyvana’s skin joining LoR, another set of cosmetics were teased. There was a Sentinels of Light skin for Riven at the end of the Viegi reveal video, which is coming soon to League of Legends’ next patch. In addition to this, a Sentinel-style Board and Card Back can be glimpsed alongside the new skin. While not prominently featured as the other cosmetics, a Ruined Crown card back was also visible.
Despite being a major focus of this upcoming set of card releases, it is unknown if Viego’s reveal marks the end of this teaser or if there’s more to be shown along within the next coming days.
Viego will join the Shadow Isles champion roster when LoR’s next event releases July 14.
