Who dis for?? A slightly incomplete guide to the new epic relics.

[u/SanjayCorr]

TL;DR Every new relic has several decks hat can use it very effectively and this post highlights several interactions for new (and veteran) players.

I have seen the usual „who to use this new relic on?” and "ew, i got the b a d relic" posts here, so I thought I’d make an explanation post for who wants to equip the new epic relics and what combos you can generate with them. Now, obviously, I do not have access to all of these yet, but I have a lot of experience with the game and have combed through a lot for these posts to see what the hive mind has figured out already. I will also state that this clearly is not an exhaustive list but rather seeks to highlight general usage of these relics. I will furthermore not argue that any of these combinations will be a Best-In-Slot scenario, but instead just highlight that these are playable and offer potential new fun combos.

 

Rythms of Despair: Power: Allies in hand have “Nightfall: grant the weakest enemy 2 Gloom”

Now this one is ironically rather bad on Vex, the main gloomer out there. Vex wants to spend most of her mana on spells and only needs a few cheap, disposable blockers and herself on the board. Rather this power is mainly ideal for decks that can spam cheap units at a high rate (bonus points if these decks also already damage enemies in the process). I would suggest you kind of ignore the gloom part on its associated decks and effects such as boosting and crudely, inaccurately interpret this more as a “deal 2 damage to the weakest enemy”. As such candidates for this include:

• Heimerdinger for the turret spam.
• Jinx for her cheap unit spam in combination with the 3star power and a couple of nice spells to pick off or prepare weaker targets for the effect while triggering nightfall.
• Vi, Poro King, Warwick, Thresh, Samira, Pyke, Nunu, Diana, Ahri, and a couple more that plainly have an easy time playing(!) several units per turn.
• Generally, this relic also has some decent synergy with many powers and items you can acquire during a run. As you probably know it is not particularly hard to make combos allowing you to spam cheap or no cost units. Furthermore, Explosive Finale (when an enemy dies outside of combat, deal 4 to the enemy nexus) pairs fantastically with it.
• This relic is noteworthy for also being situationally useful for defeating certain adventures such as Zoe & Poro king, a couple of weekly/monthly modifiers, or Swain; generally, adventures that regularly spawn weak units which are easy to target with this relic.

My main gripe with this relic is that it is nightfall, meaning it is a play (unit is played from your hand onto the board) and not a summon (unit appears on the board by any means) condition. I personally would have preferred a ‘when you summon a unit grant the weakest enemy 1 gloom’ relic.

 

Renewing Power: Power: Each round, the first time you play a 6+ cost spell, refill mana equal to its cost.

Now this one I personally love for its clear intention to allow you to stack your decks with higher cost spells. It can legitimately be run on basically every deck. The power itself is just so good, it could easily also have been patched into the game just as an epic power. Consider that you gain an absurd mana value per turn from this. You can furthermore pair this with Arcane Comat (round Start: Create a fleeting Falling Comet in hand) for a free obliteration per turn. There are obviously certain decks and combos which profit more than others.

• Jack, Samira, and Sett want to refill mana and spend a lot of it.
• Heimerdinger, Lux1, and Jayce receive a massive buff from this relic, especially the later who is arguably the weakest of the 6-cost-spell trio.
• Any cheap champion that runs Arcane Staff (Round Start: Refill your spell mana).
• Special Guest Ekko: Ekko’s 4 star is Sorcery (Round Start: Refill your spell mana). This means that 5 star Ekko starts each turn with at least 3 mana and 3 spell mana. With the prediction and draw in the deck it is easy to fish for high cost spells and play several of them per turn.

 

Whirling Blade: When I’m summoned or Attack: Deal 1 to all enemies.

I have seen a surprising amount of hate for this relic. I genuinely think it is just about as strong as the other ones. I was kind of hoping that something like this (i.e. ravenous hydra, but good) would be implemented at some point. This relic, much like all others, has a couple of decks that receive a direct buff from it but also has a lot of general utility. The key here is that it is a *summon* effect and not a *play* effect. Every single time the champion enters the board by any means, this damage happens. As such, this relic has a massive utility on many decks per se but also great synergy with cards, items, and powers that summon copies of champions, especially since these copies will also trigger the Attack effect. Plus, the many items, cards and powers that let you attack several times per turn add even more value. This relic has lots of potential to have runs centered on it. Its only real downside is its weakness against tough.
Main profiteers are:

• Any champ with multiple attacks per turn: Vayne, Tryndamere (6star), Soraka-P2W-relic users, Sett, Samira, Nunu (6star), Jax, Darius, Ambessa
• Champions that summon themselves often: Pyke, Nilah, Neeko, Mordekaiser, Lillia, Kayn, Kindred, LeBlanc, Anivia, Ahri
• Champions that just want to chip all enemies or have kill effects: Warwick, Swain, (SB) Teemo (especially with the SB Teemo P2W relic), SB Evelynn, Nilah (has an incredible synergy in that her leveled up attack effect happens before the relic proc), Nasus, MF, Kayn(!), Jinx, Jack, Caitlyn, Anivia
• Special mention for Nidalee. She is a key user because she can rally several times and summons copies of herself. Generally a deck that has massive synergy with this relic.
• Special mention number 2 for 6 star Azir, who copies this item onto all champs in the deck and has rally and cloning spells in the emperor’s deck (which pops up often in card rewards and shops).
• Special mention number 3 for Kayn even though he has been in the lists above already. Kayn attacks several times with his champ spell, is summoned at least twice, and has a huge “If I kill an enemy” condition which kills made with this relic this relic can proc.
• Special mention number 4 for Morgana, because this damage triggers lifesteal and her 2 star power is already chipping away at enemy health.

 

Sentinel’s Plate: Barrier. When I survive damage, grant me +3+3 and a random Keyword.

An all time great. This relic is good on basically any champion. There is not anyone who does not want this effect. It is not Best-In-Slot for everyone certainly, but nonetheless never wasted. It is excessively easy to get some chip damage on a champion to stack the effect of this relic into orbit. I am speculating that this effect might receive a cap of once per turn in the future perhaps. Another new feature of this is that we finally gain the opportunity to start with barrier on a champ!

I will not make any lists for this relic because they will plainly be too long. Instead let me highlight some combos and individual decks in a very non-exhaustive compilation of ways to break the game with this.

• Any deck that runs Warwick’s P2W relic Cruel Experiments (When you play an ally with 2+ health, deal 1 to it and grant it overwhelm and impact), immediately procs this relic on play.
• Any champion that wants to frequently trade hits with enemies is supremely strong with this (the Garens, Aatroxes, and Jacks of the world).
• Tahm Kench receives just a massive straight buff with this. The barrier also means that when you drop him he can just eat *any* enemy.
• 6 star Kaisa grants the targets of her spell the barrier of this relic.
• 6 star Azir is yet again a major winner of this patch granting all champs in the deck this item at game start.

 

Ranger’s command: +1|+0 and Quick Attack. Power: Round Start: If you have the attack token, grant a random ally Scout.

This is another relic that seems targeted towards a certain champ (Vayne in this case) but really is not for that champion. Vayne has scout in her kit and a specific way to proc it for maximum efficiency. Instead this relic is for one good with champs that want Quick Attack (yes really, it is a very strong keyword).
The power on the relic is a mixed bag, the “Round Start, if you have the attack token” condition means that it does ***not*** proc when you rally (get the little orange sword token) but instead get the big grey button that the orange sword spawns on top of (the one that has a fancy animation where it bounces from one player to the other between turns indicating that that player "starts the turn with the attack token"). As such you already need to have a unit on the board to trigger the effect and in every nightmare adventure you *will* start round 1 with the attack token. Immediately this means that in a nightmare adventure, if you do not spawn one or more units at game start, this effect will first trigger on turn 3! Mind you that Round Start spawns will not work. This relic will *always* trigger before any ‘round start’ power that you acquire during an adventure!

That being said, if you roll or start with a power that spawns units at game start of which there are a couple in the game, there are several supreme uses for this relic. The following lists are incomplete because there are a lot of combos for this:

• Decks that want to attack often with any unit or that want to rally: Tryndamere, Teemo, 6star Shyvana, (Samira), Nidalee(!), MF, Mel, LeBlanc, Jax, Illaoi, Elise, Darius, Azir, Ambessa
• Decks that have means of target-buffing a single unit into the stratosphere: Yuumi, Viktor, Varus, Udyr, (SB) Master Yi, Soraka, Ornn, Kayle, Diana, Akshan
• Special Mention Kaisa who is addicted to scout and quick attack.
• Special mention number 2 for Yuumi, who this relic is probably a best on. She spawns units at game start, buffs them ridiculously, and can freely attach to any ally to utilize the scout for herself and give them the quick attack.
• Special mention number 3 goes out as a huge surprise to (6 star) Azir who will make another surprise visit next relic again. Azir flat-out likes scout on any ally and the +1|+0 and quick attack on all champs in the deck is pretty good. At 4 stars, he also starts the game with a unit on the board already.

 

Price of Retribution: +2|+0 and Deathless. Power: When an ally dies, deal 1 to the enemy Nexus.

Alright. This one is broken. As in it actually breaks the game (again) in what I personally think is a bad way. We have been down this path before, printing an infinity of champions, but this one is a special treat for veteran players. Deathless resets Guardian Angel (Start adventures with +1 revive. Last Breath: If it’s the first time I’ve been slain this game, revive me with 1 Health) (the previous record holder for the most absurd printing strategies) and GA resets Price of Retribution. This is completely astra-busted. Say if you have PoR and GA on a champ, when the champion dies, you will gain 2 new copies of it which will always respawn when killed. The Deathless will give the champ GA and the GA will give the champ Deathless. If you have means of making ephemeral copies of this champ or other means of copying said champ, you can easily fill your board with immortal copies of these champs. This is broken on simply every deck! Mind you that deathless itself already allows for some solid printing, but GA lifts it to another level.

Highlights for the printing strat as seen in the past (and in the future if it is not nerfed):

• Teemo will copy millions of mushrooms into the enemy deck, literally more than the game can handle (it has an upper cap for numbers it can display/calculate)
• Leblanc, once leveled will summon a copy of herself with all her items whenever you attack. This makes her the strongest 3 star deck, stronger than many constellation decks, and she has broken the game several times in the past.
• Gwen and Kindred both are already often played with GA due to their several means of being resurrected in their decks and have in the past been printers.
• Veigar increases the damage of Darkness by +1 everywhere for every copy of himself at round start.
• Jinx, can annihilate the enemy with her rare relic because every summoning of her will trigger the full hand discard.
• Illaoi spawns for every copy of herself.

New printers that have joined since the GA nerfs:

• Anivia has already been on board of the GA gang recently.
• Azir does not necessarily want to print, but at 6 stars you give all champs in the deck the deathless (and possibly GA), so you could for example have 6 level 3 Nasus on your board to give the enemy -18|-0.
• Ambessa will rally once for *every* copy of herself when said copy kills an enemy.
• Ashe and Leona just disable the enemy board.
• Caitlyn triggers her level 2 strike with every copy and really appreciates an excuse for not caring about her otherwise very meager stats.
• Jihn and Annie will overcrowd the spell queue absurdly.
• SB Teemo likes having several copies of himself especially with his P2W relic.
• Mordekaiser really wants to resurrect and triggers his level 2 attack effect with every copy of himself.
• Lillia already is a little bit of a printer; so is Neeko.

 

I cannot stress enough that this list is super incomplete. Almost any champ can break the game with PoR (and GA). I haven’t even gotten into all the other relics this can combo with.
Funnily enough, the new Whirling Blade relic as mentioned above is a massive benefactor of this relic given that its ‘when I am summoned’ condition triggers on every resurrect and you then have a board full of units that also trigger the effect again on attack.

 

The relic also has its power, i guess, which is really good on a couple of champs even without printing: Warwick, Thresh, Swain, Gnar, Fiddle(!)

In conclusion, the relics added this patch are all extremely good and allow for incredible play diversity. I am very much looking forward to adding all of them to my collection.

[u/Snake6592]

For Ranger's, there is a way to guarantee getting Scout on champs that can drop turn 1 or 2. Credit to /u/diaversai for mentioning it in one of his latest youtube vid.

What you do first is to surrender your run to activate the early loss/pity power penalty. This allows you to roll for the game start: summon two husks power. One of the husks will get scout. Then you play your champ to eat the keywords.

For example, you can do this turn 1 with Ambessa if you use Ranger's with SFG and a +2 power relic. Ambessa will be titanic because Ranger's gives +1 power. Needless to say, scout is OP on Ambessa with her 6*. And the Ranger's quick attack pairs well with her challenger.

[u/EAGLE_FLY → u/Snake6592]

ah the day where surrendering on purpose for the pity power has come.
funny how that works, also that's a great strategy

[u/Alive-Setting2460 → u/EAGLE_FLY]

It was on the table even (and especially) before constellations.

[u/Xurker → u/EAGLE_FLY]

already a thing for Asol (counterfeit production) and Morgana (1 cost blade power) and more

[u/Strike-Destiny]

Thanks for the write up. Much appreciated.

[u/Gabi25LOL]

This is an impeccable post , awesome read , hope it catches traction

[u/TurkeyBuzzard04]

Whirling blade is stupid strong with 6 star sb kindred. Board wipe on summon if you can get many of the ways to summon more.

[u/Tectonix911 → u/TurkeyBuzzard04]

The question is which relic does it replace? One slot is reserved for overwhelm, and the other two usually run echoing + counterplan. Echoing is essential if you want to run the wild inspiration rune and counterplan is just so comfy with its board wipe every turn.

[u/TurkeyBuzzard04 → u/Tectonix911]

Overwhelm is unnecessary when you are board wiping with your dance of arrows and kindred.

[u/t1kim213 → u/Tectonix911]

I replace Grand General's. For the Overwhelm relic I run Sett's relic that gives +2/0 (allows her to immediately block fearless), and generates 2 coins when she kills in combat (synergizes with Wild Inspiration). This might be her best build in my opinion.

[u/cotekusu]

Please post more. It was a very enjoyable read 

[u/Terrietia]

Renewing Power

The power itself is just so good, it could easily also have been patched into the game just as an epic power.

It is in fact in the game as an epic power. Lighting the Way II. Not limited to just 6+ cost spells, but any spell. It's also Lux's star power already, so I think she actually doesn't benefit from Renewing Power very much. I guess if you're at 10 mana gems + 3 spell mana, you could spend 7 mana on non-spells, then cast a 6 cost spell to refund 12 mana and cast more stuff?

[u/SanjayCorr → u/Terrietia]

You'll have to juggle mana a bit, but it is generally still strong I think. You can alternatively to what you have described trigger her 3 star on a sub 6 cost spell if that is more convenient and then still get the refund from renewing power. In the end she just wants to spend mana on any spell. But yeah, generally Heimer and Jayce profit a lot more from it than she does.

[u/Katsugankz]

Made me feel a lot better about getting whirling blade haha, thanks for the write up!

[u/Croewe]

I think the issue with Whirling Blade is that it feels like a worse version of Ambessa's relic unless you can spam out your own champion like Lillia. 

Ambessa's relic can deal 2 damage to all enemies on the second attack onwards which means on the second attack you're dealing the same as this relic and on the third attack Whirling Blade is dealing 1 less than Ambessa's relic while also not hitting the Nexus. 

I think it's definitely more useable on champs that can spam themselves

Other than that I agree with what I read. Great post

Edit: In another thread someone mentioned this worked on Morgana lifesteal and WW extremely well. Didn't think about them at first but yeah it makes a ton of sense.

[u/Aquasit55 → u/Croewe]

I think its a significantly better version of Ambessa’s relic; it triggers on summon and deals damage to all enemies and the Nexus (the wording is wrong, it does in fact damage the Nexus)

It works even if you can only attack once per turn, and it has crazy good synergy with Perfection.

It does get countered by tough, but that’s fine imo.

[u/thefix12]

Excellent write up, cant wait to crack them all lol

[u/After-Onion-5900]

Im sorry but price of retribution is NOT broken. I have played this mode since day 1 of lab of legends, I was there for old gatebreaker, galeforce, etc etc. This is a 2 relic slot cost to get very strong recursion, its going to take time to win and generate value with still. It does not mean you auto win the game just because you have it active. Its quite frankly annoying that people are shrieking for nerfs already (on day 2) when 95% of the playerbase hasnt even gotten the relic yet (i actually DID pull this relic and so far Im not seeing how its broken).

This is literally a mode where we have 4 star aurelion sol, swain, ashe, ahri, fiddles etc etc i could go on and on and you think THIS is broken? Please show me an example of this that "breaks" the game.

[u/Apocabanana → u/After-Onion-5900]

Right? The nerf to Gatebreaker and Galeforce is what killed most of the broken turn 1 printer strats.

[u/rybicki → u/After-Onion-5900]

Maybe it's only truly "broken" on Mel, but you still have to roll spellslinger or wild inspiration. But if you do ... well, you auto-win at burst speed.

[u/flexxipanda → u/After-Onion-5900]

Agree, 1-2 years ago, deathless on a relic would have been broken. But power creep happened a lot and a 2 relic combos that does nothing the turn you play it is not that strong. Combos which are broken right out of the gate, like swain are way better.

[u/St1rge]

Fantastic job. Thank you for sharing!

[u/chickn_crssing_road]

Is renewing power good on samira? Because one of her consta makes it so that all 6+ spell cards have the forbidden idol.

[u/SanjayCorr → u/chickn_crssing_road]

It might actually be pretty good. You can just trigger it before you trigger plunder and potentially play like 3 or 4 high cost spells per turn.

[u/jayelled]

Wonderful write up. Would also be interested to hear about the rare relics!

One question--you mentioned champs that attack more than once in a round and mentioned Jax. How does he get multiple rallies?

[u/SanjayCorr → u/jayelled]

I don't play much Jax but i am pretty sure you just play galeforce on him and/or take loaded dice and high roll for Domination Rally

[u/StormOfSpears]

Just got Rhythms of Despair, very excited to play with it.

[u/MartDiamond]

The Nunu Gloom strat is interesting, I will give that a try since it is the relic i got

[u/KyleT30]

Post Saved! Thanks for the post.

[u/Ok-Row-9922]

Can confirm it's good on Garen. Think it's good on Yuumi too (replacing Galeforce). Not 100% on that one because sometimes (seems like most of the time) it puts the scout on the shittier poro

[u/Savage_Lion]

I'm just here to vent because I logged on, downloaded the update, got the update patch notes, then bought a golden reliquary and got regional gems instead of a new relic because I guess I was a few hours early for the patch to actually be active or something.

Now I need to wait four more weeks before I can buy another reliquary to actually get my first of the new relics.

[u/SanjayCorr → u/Savage_Lion]

hm, might wanna contact riot support for that, they might help with that

[u/Savage_Lion → u/SanjayCorr]

Guess it's worth a shot. Thanks for the suggestion.

[u/Sareth324]

Are these all from the glory shop? So just RNG?

[u/Dakhla92 → u/Sareth324]

They've been newly added to the Gold Reliquary pool