Legends of Runeterra: A complete guide to Shadow Isles champions

This is a Legends of Runeterra guide explaining the mana costs, power, health, spells, and level up conditions of all five Shadow Isles champions.

Legends of Runeterra is Riot Games’ digital card game that shares the same universe as League of Legends, which means you’ll see some familiar faces from the seven regions of Runeterra during your LoR journey. This is a breakdown of the basics of the five Shadow Isles champions and how they function in game.

The Shadow Isles are a cursed archipelago set aside from the large continents of Runeterra. Once a thriving and vibrant realm, the region was brought to the brink of destruction by a ‘magical cataclysm’. Now, the Isles are surrounded by Black Mist, reaping the souls of any visitor who dares set foot on the cursed land.

In Legends of Runeterra, the Shadow Isles units are very strongly themed with mechanics like Fearsome and Ephemeral dominating the region’s cards. Often you’ll find that you have to destroy some of your own units to grow in strength and gain control of the board.

These are the five Shadow Isles champions available in Legends of Runeterra:

Elise

Elise
Elise, the original unit spammer, makes use of endless Spiderlings to lock down and harass her opponent during the early game. With Fearsome, the Spider Queen ensures her survival against low power enemies while summoning Spiderlings after every attack. With 2 power and 3 health for just 2 mana, Elise is the perfect early game unit.

Level Up
Transforming into Spider Queen Elise is also pretty easy with a Spider-heavy deck. Simply have 3+ Spiders on the board and Elise will level up, gaining +2|+0 stats and grabbing Challenger. On top of that, from this point on all Elise’s Spider allies will also have Challenger and Fearsome, making for an incredible obnoxious early game force.

Elise’s Crawling Sensation
Elise’s champion spell is Crawling Sensation, a slow spell that summons 2 Spiderlings if an ally died this round. There’s no need to explain how powerful this is in a Spider-heavy rush deck alongside Elise as you can rapidly clear your opponent’s side of the board with unlimited Spiders.

Spiderling
Elise and Spiderlings combine to make a deadly Legends of Runeterra combo. Although they may only have 1|1 stats, Spiderlings are the perfect board fodder capable of destroying low health enemies and providing excellent blocking to avoid being hit with high damage.

Hecarim

Hecarim
6 mana for 5 power and 5 health is a fair trade, especially when you pair those stats with Overwhelm and the ability to summon 2 Spectral Riders after attacking. In terms of mid game units, Hecarim is one of the strongest as he can quickly stack up your side of the board with units for a devastating attack.

Level Up
To reach level 2 Hecarim, you simply have to attack 7+ times with Ephemeral allies, which is made easy with Hecarim’s passive. From this, Hecarim will grab +1|+1 stats and increase all Ephemeral allies’ stats by +3|+0. At this point, Hecarim and his Spectral Riders should be able to rip apart the opponent’s Nexus in just a few more turns.

Hecarim’s Onslaught of Shadows
Hecarim’s champion spell is Onslaught of Shadows, a slow spell that summons 2 Spectral Riders, just like Hecarim’s passive. This allows you to further fill up the board with Ephemeral units to quickly dispose of your enemies.

Spectral Rider
Spectral Riders are to Hecarim what Spiderlings are to Elise, only much more powerful on the attack. At 2 power, the Spectral Riders aren’t going to do major damage to some of the tankier units in the game, but the sheer number of them will give your adversary a few things to think about in game.

Kalista

Kalista
You can’t ask for much more for 3 mana. With 4 power, 3 health, and Fearsome, Kalista is a very powerful early game unit.

Level Up
All it takes to level Kalista up is for her to see 3+ allies die at which point her stats will grow by +1|+1 and will revive her strongest dead ally. This ally will only be able to attack but will take damage instead of Kalista, which isn’t a big deal because it will be Ephemeral anyway.

Combine this new passive with a very high power unit and Kalista could single-handedly win the game with her Oathsworn Bond.

Kalista’s Black Spear
Kalista’s champion spell is Black Spear, a fast spell that deals 3 damage to any unit if an ally died this round. Rarely will you end a round without losing a unit, so this spell can be used at any point. However, it is probably strongest when used to finish off a strong enemy unit that has just taken damage or remove champions from the board with ease.

Don’t forget to use it on your own units if one of your passives line up with dead allies, such as Kalista’s level up condition!

Maokai

Maokai
The Sapling King, Maokai, doesn’t let his underwhelming stats get in the way of having an impact on Legends of Runeterra games. Although he may only have 1 attack and 4 health for his pretty steep 4 mana cost, Maokai’s Saplings are the real threat.

The first time you play an ally each round, Maokai tosses 2 cards and summons a Sapling, a strong early game unit that can help wipe the board with Challenger and 2 power early on.

Level Up
Maokai will level up after you toss 25 times or your units have died. This will result in a 2|5 level 2 Maokai that summons a Sapling at the start of every round, gains Regeneration, and Obliterates the enemy deck upon levelling up, leaving only 4 non-champions.

In short, after Maokai reaches level 2, your opponent must win with their current cards or its game over.

Maokai’s Sap Magic
Maokai’s champion spell is Sap Magic, a burst spell that tosses 3 cards in order to heal all allies by 3. This card is particularly strong when a high priority unit is one round away from being destroyed or is facing off against a higher power opponent on the board.

Thresh

Thresh
One of the most iconic abilities in League of Legends, Thresh’s Death Sentence, has seamlessly made its way over to Legends of Runeterra in the form of Challenger. Using this ability with 3 power and 6 health isn’t going to wipe the board, but gives your other units a chance to do impactful damage while Thresh tanks a high priority enemy unit.

Level Up
To reach Level 2, Thresh simply has to see 6+ units die, a very easy task if you’ve got low health units in your deck. From this, Thresh gains +1|+1 stats and will summon an attacking champion after his first attack. Nothing special!

Thresh’s The Box
Thresh’s champion spell is The Box, a fast spell that deals 3 damage to every enemy that was summoned this round. This spell is perfect to quickly clear the board in those scenarios where your opponent is trying to quickly restock their forces with low cost units.

Which of the five Shadow Isles champions do you think is strongest? Will you be building a Shadow Isles based Legends of Runeterra deck?