Top 5 Most Forgotten Bandlecity Cards (Which You've Probably Never Seen!)

Carrying on with the series of articles covering "forgotten cards you've probably never seen", today we'll take a look at Bandlecity.

This article is part of a series I created for Cards Realm - if you want to see the last article, about Demacia, click here.

In this article, I selected 5 Bandlecity cards you most likely have never seen while playing ranked games.

Tell us what would your list of the "top 5 most forgotten Bandlecity cards" look like in our comment section!

When Spirit Portal was revealed in the Beyond the Bandlewood set, we all imagined this card would be super interesting in Jinx Discard lists, which were popular at the time (again).

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. We even tried, very hard, to make this card work, but nothing is better than good, old Burn. Spirit Portal would take the place of spells like Get Excited!, which also discards other cards, for instance, and can be used to deal damage to the Nexus directly.

Ever since then, discard lists have upgraded their strategy; followers aren't as important mid to late game because this is the moment your opponent will stabilize the match and start controlling the board. As a result, direct damage has always been the main way to finish games for these Jinx lists, and not Spirit Portal, which needs units on the board to work.

We never used that card again, and it was completely forgotten. However, it had one tiny moment of glory, just when it was revealed - for this reason, it occupies our 5th place.

In LoR, we have several combat tricks which force our units to Strike other enemy units, but none of them cost 6 mana.

Double Tap is a weird card for Bandlecity: only this card and Heroic Charge (which could easily fit this list's 6th place) allow us to Strike enemies in this region. And, additionally, this card has synergy with multi-region units, which mostly don't match the game style Double Tap wants.

Not to mention, as we've discussed before, it costs 6 mana, which is absurdly expensive for an effect that exists in the game for 2 mana: Single Combat.

The main idea here is to activate Impact twice through one of our attacking units. This interaction became famous with Prize Fight, which was incredibly popular in Bilgewater Tristana lists some time ago.

So, if you want to defeat your opponent with Impact, instead of spending 6 mana, you can spend 2, use two Prize Fight during your attack, and you don't even need a multi-region unit. Furthermore, the best targets for this type of interaction have always been Tristana and Bandle Gunners, which are not multi-region cards.

Double Tap only occupies our 4th spot and isn't further up in this list because the character in its artwork is quite famous; it is featured in several of this region's iconic cards, such as Condense, Portia the Peculiar, and even Tristana Final Level.

I bet the only time you have seen this card was when it came in a Mysterious Portal, or through Norra. At least, to me, that was the only time I've ever seen it.

Bandlecity has always tried to be a support region for other regions in the game; as a result, we have multi-region cards. But, some of them, like Wizened Wizard, are in Bandlecity to support one of its archetypes: Veigar Senna decks, which focus on Darkness.

Wizened Wizard wanted to be a 3-cost follower which, when played on curve, would allow you to have more mana during your turns, and like so let you play more spells.

The problem with this is that Darkness lists don't really benefit from this game style because their spells are very expensive: Vengeance, and even Darkness itself. This means that, even if you play a Wizened Wizard on turn 3, nothing is better than just skipping your turn to bank mana.

Another important factor is that its effect is a Round Start effect, which means, if your opponent removes it, you'll lose everything, and won't recover any mana next turn.

Not to mention its stats, for a 3-cost unit, are terrible - 2 health for a card that doesn't affect the game at all when it is played, and has a mediocre effect, is incredibly weak. And that is why it is so forgotten.

Seraphine Bandlecity lists could benefit from its effect and use it better than Darkness lists, maybe, but, even then, it is still better if you just play cards with Attune, such as Otterpus.

All that being said, this card is excellent if you create it randomly through a Portal. The issue is if you have to play it.

Who doesn't love Mecha Yordles?

Mecha Yordles are one of the most fun mechanics in the entire game, but, unfortunately, Skrappy's Partsapalooza is one of those cards you look at in your collection and start asking yourself when it got there.

This landmark is great in discard lists because you, in "theory", won't lose any value when you discard it from your hand. This is only in "theory", though, because, in practice, this isn't exactly what happens - you do lose, yes, a lot of value, because summoning Mecha Yordles is a bit difficult and too slow.

We can somewhat curve properly with this list, if we, for instance, play a Scrapheap on turn 1 discarding Skrappy's Partsapalooza, and, on turn 2, summon a Furyhorn Crasher, for instance. However, the chances of this happening and getting a good keyword are incredibly small.

Speaking from experience (which we've all had with Evelynn's Husks), sometimes you get Regeneration, or Fearsome, or more Impact, which won't affect the match at all. And, even though you can get Elusive, let's admit it is much better if you just replace your Skrappy's Partsapalooza for another card in your deck that does more for you, such as, for instance, a Return-o Wrench, which can recycle itself in your hand.

The main reason this card is forgotten is that Mecha Yordles are rarely meta, and, when they show up, they aren't the main focus on their lists, but rather support, like they are in Jinx lists and Sion Bandlecity lists.

As we don't have a deck that focuses entirely on Mecha Yordles, it is very difficult to play Skrappy's Partsapalooza as well, and this is why this card is another forgotten card in this region.

As usual, the first spot in these lists is chosen through this method: I look at my collection and choose the card that I (after playing 4 years professionally and also casting LoR tournaments) can't even remember what it does.

To be honest, Fix-Em-Uppers don't even look like an LoR card, considering we're used to seeing and recognizing Yordles, and they're clearly not Yordles, but rather tiny mice.

Tiny mice are relatively common in Bandlecity cards, but this is the only card that shows them in the Mecha Arena, using these clothes, instead of the setting we usually find them in, like Assistant Librarian.

It has the same design of cards like Chip, Master Lookout, and Bristlehog, which are 1-cost units that can go on the board with 3 attack and a lot of health if you activate their effects.

However, unlike the followers above, Fix-Em-Uppers costs 2 mana instead of 1, and this is enough to make this card extremely weak and forgotten.

The Discard archetypes that could play Fix-Em-Uppers also don't really match this unit all that much because you'll rarely discard cards this early in the game to activate their effects. This means you probably won't have a turn 2 3/3 Fix-Em-Uppers in most games.

Not to mention, we have 1 or 2 cost units that are infinitely better and more "aggressive", and do a lot more in these discard decks. This is one of the main factors that put Fix-Em-Uppers in this list's first place, and made it the most forgotten card in Bandlecity.

If you've read this far, thank you. I hope you had fun.

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