Riot Games confirmed that Nami will join the Legends of Runeterra cast as part of Beyond the Bandlewood. Bilgewater’s newest champion taps into multi-spell casting to empower your allies, and her official announcement came hours after it accidentally leaked on the game’s Instagram page.
Nami is a three-mana champion with 2/3 combat stats, Attune, and an ability that grants your weakest non-Immobile ally with a +1/+0 stat buff. Nami levels up after you’ve gained at least seven spell mana throughout the game.
When Nami reaches level two, she retains Attune, gains +1/+1 in combat stats, and her ally buffing ability improves into a permanent +2/+1 increase.
On top of Nami’s reveal, Ebb, Abyssal Guard, Avatar of the Tides, Fleet Admiral Shelly, Journeying Sandhopper, Marai Songstress, Marai Warden, Marai Greatmother, and Tidal Wave were also teased for Bilgewater. The Lady of Blood, Curious Shellfolk, Tail-Cloak Matriarch, and Mirror Mage, all of which were shown off throughout each of the regional Seasonal Tournaments, also received higher-resolution prints on Mobalytics in this card batch.
Ebb, which is Nami’s champion spell, is a Fast two-mana Common Spell that deals two damage randomly to either an enemy or the enemy Nexus. Afterwards a Flow is created in hand, which is a two-mana Fleeting Burst Spell that lets you either heal an ally or your Nexus for two and then creates an Ebb and Flow in hand.
Ebb and Flow is a two-mana Fleeting Fast Spell that combines the two effects by letting you heal an allied unit or your Nexus for two, and then dealing two damage randomly to an enemy or the Nexus.
Abyssal Guard is a Common four-mana 2/3 Fearsome Unit with an ability that triggers whenever you cast a spell, giving him a temporary +2/+0 stat boost for the round.
Avatar of the Tides is an Epic six-mana Unit with 4/5 combat stats and a game-changing ability that alters the way you gain mana. While the avatar is on the field, if you were to gain a mana gem, you would instead refill your spell mana. Whenever you cast a spell, Avatar of the Tides creates a random spell that costs three mana or less in your hand and gives it Fleeting.
Fleet Admiral Shelly is a five-mana Epic Unit with 3/3 stats, Elusive and Attune keywords, and an ability that triggers every time you play two spells within a round, granting other allies +1/+1. This effect can happen more than once per turn, so you will be able to accrue even more buffs if you can cast four spells.
Journeying Sandhopper is a three-mana 4/3 Common Unit with Attune.
Marai Songstress is a two-mana 3/2 Rare Unit with an ability that activates when summoned if you happened to cast a spell earlier that round. She receives the Elusive keyword when fulfilling all those conditions.
Marai Warden is a Rare two-mana 2/1 Unit with a summon ability that summons a random one-cost follower.
Marai Greatmother is a four-mana 3/3 Common Unit that creates five random six mana or higher spells in your deck when she’s summoned. Created spells cost three mana.
Tidal Wave is a Rare three-mana Slow Spell that deals one damage to two different randomly targeted enemies and creates a Crashing Wave in your deck.
Crashing Wave is also three-mana card with Slow. It deals two damage to four different randomly targeted enemies and creates a Colossal Wave in your deck—a three-mana Slow Spell which deals four damage to all enemies and the enemy Nexus.
Curious Shellfolk is an Epic Unit from Bandle City with 4/6 stats that costs six mana. Its aura ability creates a copy of a card in your hand with the cost reduced by one whenever you pick a card from randomly selected options. This includes abilities like Predict, Manifest, Invoke, and potentially the newest mechanic, Prank.
Tail-Cloak Matriarch, which features Ahri in her art, is a Rare five-mana Unit from Ionia with 4/5 stats and an ability that summons an exact Ephemeral copy of the first follower you recall each round.
Mirror Mage is an Epic eight-mana 4/7 Yordle Unit from Bandle City which summons an exact copy of a created follower you play. In addition to this, whenever you cast a created spell, you cast an exact copy of it again on the same targets.
Meta Implications
Nami has a chance to find success in multiple regions since she excels accruing spell mana and casting cheap spells. If you already have spell mana stored with Nami and end your turn with excess mana, the surplus will go to waste and won’t contribute to her level-up progress.
Despite this weakness, leveling up Nami is generally easy, since spell mana is not difficult to do throughout the course of the game, especially when combined with Attune.
Nami’s unit-empowering ability will make her a prime target against enemy removal, so storing up multiple spells to cast in a single turn after playing her will let you generate a lot of value.
Two regions that Nami can pair well with are Ionia and Targon. There are lots of cheap spells within Ionia, some of which can protect her like Nopeify and Twin Discipline. Targon also has potent and cheap protection spells like Pale Cascade, Guiding Touch, and Bastion.
Nami can also find success with the upcoming Bandle City region, since the newest region has a plethora of cheap spells and also features units with Attune like Otterpus.
Players can also build Nami with several other regions and strategies in mind, like Piltover & Zaun with Viktor. Overall, Nami brings an exciting time for deck builders and theorycrafters.
Ebb is a fairly weak spell on its own. It’s worse than Mystic Shot by direct comparison due to its random nature, but the card’s strength lies in its ability to generate more spells to cast with its following chain. By casting more spells and creating more cards, it opens up synergies for cards that require either mechanic to succeed—like Nami herself or the recently revealed Hidden Pathways.
Avatar of the Tides warps the game to let you weave multiple spells within a single turn, but at a major cost. If you play this card throughout the mid game, you will be unable to gain any more maximum mana. The ability to gain extra spell mana the following turn, however, allows you to perform some impressive spellcasting chains due to its card-generating ability. Despite these strengths, inhibiting your mana growth and their below-average stats make Avatar of the Tides a risky card to use.
Fleet Admiral Shelly is a potent payoff card for decks that focus on multiple spell casts in a single round. A boardwide permanent +1/+1 buff for every other unit brings tremendous value, especially if you manage to summon a wide board. Despite his incredibly below-average stats for his cost, if your opponent fails to deal with his three health, it is possible for Shelly to run away with the game.
Marai Songstress has a high chance of finding play independently from Nami due to her strong conditional ability with an average statline. Aggressive decks with a health mix of spells will benefit from a 3/2 Elusive unit for two mana and can quickly snowball the game.
Tidal Wave is an incredibly weak card at first glance due to it being a worse Make It Rain, a card already in Bilgewater. Despite this major flaw, the highest chance Tidal Wave has to find play is potentially with a Predict deck, since the odds of finding Crashing Wave and Colossal Wave improve dramatically when you can potentially put either on top of your deck.
Nami will join the Noxus champion roster when LoR: Beyond the Bandlewood releases on Aug. 25 with 126 new cards, nine of which include champions.
