Legends of Runeterra: Call of the Mountain’s first expansion has officially had all its cards revealed. In addition to this, every known keyword and mechanic that will be coming with the first third of CotM’s set has also been shown.
With six new keywords to learn, here’s what you can expect from each mechanic and some example cards to understand them better.
SpellShield
SpellShield was the first mechanic revealed during the spoiler season. SpellShield nullifies the next enemy spell or skill that would affect a unit with this keyword active. SpellShield is a potent tool to keep your high value units safe from enemy abilities. Oftentimes, SpellShield will force your opponent to spend two cards to deal with one unit. SpellShield also lets any of your units with the keyword bypass AoE effects like Ruination or The Skies Descend.
Besides being granted from spells and abilities, some units innately come with SpellShield, like Aurelion Sol.
Unlike Barrier, which stops the next instance of damage and lasts only for one round, SpellShield is permanent until it is expended.
Behold
Behold was the second mechanic shown off during spoiler season. Behold cards activate their bonuses if you are either holding a specific kind of card, or have it in play. So far, Behold has been primarily featured in Freljord and Targon. Freljord Behold cards require you to have expensive eight-mana cards in hand or play to activate their effects. Targon Behold cards require you to have a Celestial card either on board or in your hand to activate.
Nightfall
Nightfall cards activate their bonus effects if they are not the first cards that you played in a turn. This means that with enough Nightfall cards, you can chain their effects multiple times in a turn.
Nightfall is found in the Shadow Isles and Targon, with both Nocturne and Diana as the Champions using these mechanics.
Daybreak
As the fourth keyword for Call of the Mountain, unlike Nightfall, Daybreak is solely found in Targon and is themed around Leona. Daybreak cards activate their bonus effects if they are the first card that you play within a turn.
While this may seem limiting, Rahvun the Daylight’s Spear can turn this restriction off and allow you to chain Daybreak multiple times. Leona is the champion that makes use of the Daybreak mechanic by leveling up through multiple uses of it.
Invoke
The penultimate keyword shown for the newest set, Invoke pushes the boundaries for the CCG genre. Whenever you Invoke, you select one out of three Celestial cards to add to your hand. In total, there are 22 different Celestial cards that you can see. There’s two Celestial cards for each mana cost, one unit and one spell, from zero mana to 10. Some Invoke cards also pick out Celestials from specific costs, like Solari Priestess and Spacey Sketcher.
Beware of any players doing multiple Invokes, as late-game Celestial cards will out-value you if the game goes on long enough.
Fury
As the last keyword that was shown off, Fury has been exclusively found on Dragon-type units so far. Units with Fury gain a permanent +1/+1 in stats whenever it successfully kills a unit. This mechanic allows Dragons to punish wide boards with multiple tiny units, as Fury allows your Dragon to scale upwards and threaten the opponent even harder after clearing your opponent’s board.
Obtain the cards with these keywords and master them when LoR: Call of the Mountain officially releases for PC and Mobile tomorrow, on Aug. 26.
