Legends of Runeterra’s card reveal season for Monuments of Power has reached its finale. Shyvana from Demacia is the last champion to join the expansion, Riot Games revealed today—and she’s another early-game piece to the Dragon strategy.
Shyvana is a four-cost champion Dragon unit with three power, four health, and an ability that grants her +1/+1 in stats for the round when you declare an attack with her. She levels up when she sees you deal 12 damage with Dragon units.
Shyvana’s leveled form is also a four-mana Dragon with +1/+1 in stats but with an improved attack ability while gaining the Fury keyword. Whenever Shyvana declares an attack now, she’ll gain +2/+2 for the round instead and also creates a Fleeting Strafing Strike in hand. Strafing Strike is a fast spell that costs three mana and has an ally and an enemy strike each other. Outside of the effect that’s exactly like Single Combat, if the targeted ally is a Dragon, it’s healed for two afterward.
Since Shyvana’s stats are incredibly favored when declaring attacks, she synergizes well with partner regions and effects that can Rally efficiently, like Katarina or Citrus Courier. Outside of the turn where she declares an attack, Shyvana’s stats are weak and inefficient for her cost. This makes her weak to removal and stronger units whenever Shyvana’s user is on the defensive side.
In addition, Shyvana’s level up condition is exceptionally harsh and difficult for her to achieve on her own. Since Shyvana needs to be on the board and survive to see Dragons deal 12 damage in combat, reaching level two with Shyvana will be a gargantuan task that shouldn’t be expected to be done without proper setup. The more Dragons you have on your board when you activate Rally effects, or combat spells that force battles like Single Combat and Concerted Strike, the more likely Shyvana will be able to level up. This means that players using Shyvana must plan to skip their turns efficiently and accumulate spell mana to activate them.
Once Shyvana does level up, her usefulness skyrockets since she gains extra stats during attack and access to permanent scaling with Fury. In addition, the removal granted by Strafing Strike forces your opponent to think twice about how they develop their threats. If Shyvana successfully declares an attack, your opponent can’t play any weaker units on your turn, otherwise it’ll be slain by a friendly dragon.
Make your opponents suffer Shyvana’s fury when LoR: Monuments of Power drops for PC and mobile on Oct. 14.
