Legends of Runeterra (LoR), Riot Games’ deck-building card game, has released the Call of the Mountain patch that adds new champions, cards, mechanics, and balance fixes to existing decks. But the biggest addition for this patch is the inclusion of the newest Region—Targon. This new region brings with it new champions and card mechanics that add another dynamic to LoR’s deck-building gameplay.
New Faces from the Mountain
Similar to the previous Rising Tides Expansion, the Call of the Mountain expansion brings new champions onto the board. With Targon, the new champions are Taric, Diana, Leona, and Aurelion Sol. These new champions come from Riot Games’ League of Legends (LoL), the highly popular eSports MOBA title.
Just like previous champions in LoR, Targon’s new champions also share some similarities with their LoL counterparts in terms of their abilities and interactions with earlier champions in the game. And speaking of abilities, Targon’s champions sport new Keywords that give new mechanics to decks that choose to run them. Let’s take a quick look at these new Keywords:
Daybreak
Daybreak’s mechanic revolves around playing cards that need to be cast first during the player’s turn. This adds another level of strategy. While the Keyword is easy to activate, players need to think carefully which Daybreak card will be used during their turn since they can only activate Daybreak cards’ abilities just once per turn.
Nightfall
Nightfall, on the other hand, is triggered whenever a player uses a card with the Keyword after another card during their turn. This Keyword is not exclusive to Targon. But Diana, one of the new champions, has this Keyword and makes her exceptionally strong whenever she gets to use her ability. Players who enjoy building quick-hitting combo decks should try experimenting with some Nightfall cards.
Spellshield
Once a Spellshield Keyword is played, it protects the user from one enemy spell. This Keyword is exclusive to Targon. It can help players save their allies and champions from being targeted with harmful spells. This is especially effective for control decks to stall the game while they are building their combos.
Fury
For players who want their creatures to become beefy while also smashing through enemy cards, Fury is worth trying out. Cards that have Fury get +1/+1 whenever they kill an enemy unit. This makes them exceptionally dangerous when players manage to use these cards to strike down opposing ally cards and champions on the board since they can increase their damage and health significantly if left unchecked.
Invoke
Rounding up the new Keywords is Invoke. Whenever a player casts a card with Invoke, they gain access to Celestial cards. Celestial cards are not part of the player’s main deck and have exceptionally strong abilities. The downside of Celestial cards is that they usually have high casting costs and are drawn at random once the Invoke card has been played.
Moreover, most decks that run them usually revolve around the Celestial Card draws as their win condition. That said, some new cards from the other regions can assist Invoke decks to unleash the power of the Celestial cards onto enemy players.
New Tales and Legends
LoR’s lore is further deepened—thanks to Targon and its champions. For instance, Leona and Diana’s stories are interwoven with one another. Both grew up in the Rakkor tribes within Mount Targon, and have a fierce devotion to the Mountain as well as the Sun.
While Leona excelled and was deemed to be one of the champions of Solari, Diana was always questioning the ways of the Solari—to the dismay of her masters and Leona. Diana eventually gave up the way of the Solari, and became the Scorn of the Moon and Leona’s greatest adversary.
Taric
Meanwhile, Taric’s story revolves around atonement. He was a former Dauntless Vanguard for Demacia who served under Garen. However, due to his insubordination and complacency, he was responsible for the deaths of a dozen soldiers. Rather than execute Taric, Garen sentenced him to undergo the “Crown of Stone”. This is an ancient Demacian tradition that would send Taric in a perilous task to climb Mount Targon by himself.
While others might have used this sentence to flee Demacia, Taric took the task and climbed Mount Targon as part of his atonement. He almost succumbed to the Mountain numerous times, but he pressed on and managed to reach the summit. There, he was beset by numerous visions telling him that he has become the Aspect of the Protector whose duty is to protect Valoran from harm.
Aurelion Sol
Finally, we have Aurelion Sol, the Star Forger. He is one of the ancient entities that wield immense cosmic power and descended into Targon in the form of a massive dragon to heed the call of its inhabitants for guidance.
As Aurelion Sol was basking in the adulation of Targon’s inhabitants and mortals, he was presented with a magical crown. However, once he wore the crown, it suddenly clamped down and extracted his knowledge. The Aspects of Targon, who craved cosmic power, acquired the knowledge. Aurelion Sol vows vengeance after hurling back to the Cosmos.
With new Keywords, mechanics and champions, Targon is shaping up to be one of the stronger regions LoR has to date. It is up to the players to figure out how to utilize this new region and carve out their paths with numerous victories.
