Sett, Samira and Jack: First impressions of the New Champions

In Glory in Navori, the first set of the new Legends of Runeterra update model, we'll have 3 new champions: Sett, Samira and Jack. In this set's storyline, we have a big fighting tournament going on in Sett's arena, in Ionia, and other champions were invited to participate, but Samira is more interested in capturing other participants.

This set will be released alongside the card rotation, so it is possible some of these champion's ideal pairs were thrown into the Eternal format and no longer are in the Standard format.

Sett was born in Ionia, in a region occupied by Noxians. His mother is vastaya and his dad a Noxian human, making him half-vastaya. His mom was cast out of her tribe because of this taboo relationship and as a result, he was also cast out by humans. Fortunately, his dad was an arena fighter, and because of that people were too scared to say anything against him, but one day his father disappeared and after that, he was on the receiving end of all the hatred people had for him.

Faced with threats and curses, Sett turned to his fists to defend himself. That made his mom unhappy, who made him promise to never go to the arenas in which his dad fought. But fighting only made Sett more curious about his dad's story, and he goes there to investigate, eventually finding out his dad had canceled his contract there and went on to find arenas which generated more revenue. Angry, Sett asks to participate in the fights and ends up accepted as a fighter. Though underestimated, he ends up fighting ferociously and brashly and wins his combats, eventually becoming King of the Arena.

Sett is happy with the new life he leads, guaranteeing money and safety to his mother, even though it is a secret. But that stops being enough, and he no longer wants to be the King of the Arena, but its owner. So, he "friendly negotiates" with the Noxians who owned the place so that he is made the new owner, the Boss. And starts commanding the illicit dealings that happen in the place, with a growing influence.

The Champion

In League of Legends, Sett is a melee fighter specialized in receiving damage and dealing double back.

His passive is Pit Grit, which makes him switch between his fists when punching, the right one being more powerful. His skills are Knuckle Down, which makes him deal extra damage in the next attacks and move faster, Hay-Maker, which deals great AoE damage and grants him a shield according to the damage he received so far, and Facebreaker, in which he pulls two enemies from either side and stuns them.

His ultimate, The Show Stopper, is a true free fighting strike in which he carries another champion into the air and throws them against the rest of the opposing team, dealing AoE damage.

In Legends of Runeterra, Sett came in bringing many aspects of a true fighter, but he also brought much of a fighting pit owner. At level 1, he works as a challenger for a region that doesn't have a lot of direct removal, but we can see his Hay-maker represented in the barrier he gets if he were to die attacking. This way, Sett basically has a second life, but only when he's attacking.

His level 2 happens when you spend 40 mana in the game, which happens only by turn 9 usually. But, the Coins allow you to recover unit mana, so you can keep summoning units and spells and level this champion up earlier than turn 9.

And at level 2 Sett is more ready for the fight than ever, becoming immune to damage and death while attacking. Besides that, he also creates Show Stopper if you've spent 12 mana in a turn, a powerful spell that obliterates an enemy and damages the rest of the board.

Other cards

With his kit, Sett brought in cards that involve his arena. As mentioned before, most of them work using the Coin mechanic, which work as Bilgewater Powder Kegs, stacking. This means 1 Coin costs 1 mana and recovers 1 mana, a poor trade, but that allows you to summon a unit using spell mana. But, the more you invest in Coins, the more powerful your play gets, as 5 Coins still cost 1 mana, but you'll recover 5 mana, and so on and so forth.

In the cards from this set, we have those that create coins and those that use their effect to impact the game.

Attentive Accountant creates Coins when striking the enemy Nexus, an easy effect to get for an elusive unit that has 2 health and can create many coins if it's ignored. Pit Professional is the basic Coin card, creating one when summoned. But it has nice stats for its cost, so it must end up being quite useful.

Besides that, we have the spells Tag Out! which allows you to protect an ally or remove an enemy while you create coints and Place Your Bets which draws cards and creates 2 coins. Drawing cards will be very important for this archetype, because to spend mana, you need to play cards.

To take advantage of Coins we have Master Bingwen, the Sieve, who allows you to create an ephemeral copy of the next unit played that turn and Bout Security, which is very powerful if you play several copies of it. We also have The Old Timer, none other than Sett's father, but he needs a serious investment in Coins to create an effect that is possibly game-ending.

Among less important cards we have Smooth Mixologist and Facebreaker.

Possible Decks

Sett seems to be a Midrange champion that also acts as a finisher. On his own, he guarantees favorable trades for the mid-game and late game he can complete remove a unit if you spend 12 mana, which is possible usually on turns 9 and 10 with spell mana. Using the Coin cards, it is possible to level up Sett faster and use his effect easier, but it isn't strictly necessary.

He can see play in Ionia decks, such as Master Yi, who can take advantage of Coins to cast two spells in a turn or use a unit with a skill like The Witness, to keep Flow going. Jarvan IV and Shen can also be suitable options, as both can use Sett's barrier and protection to trade with enemy units, and they can use Single Combat to use Barrier aggressively.

Another combination is Nami and the Attune units that make your mana last longer, allowing this champion to level up faster. Finally, Trundle is a good option as his Ice Pillar refills 8 mana, allowing for the perfect combo with The Old Timer, but that is an option only for the Eternal format, as Trundle is rotated.

Besides these combinations, we also have the other new champions from this set, but I'll talk more about them as they show up here.

Sett seems to be a good champion, but not very special. His strength, in general, will depend on the impact of Coins in the game, but it is possible he will be used in any Ionia deck that doesn't have a second champion, as a challenger who trades favorably is always a good option for a region with no real removal.

Samira is a mercenary born in Shurima. As a child, she lived in Amakra with her family, where they worked as street artists. However, on the eve of her fourteenth birthday, her city was swarmed by Xerath's Heralds, which killed many villagers, but Samira didn't do anything and, even though she was young, she never forgave herself for that, and swore to never be afraid in her life again. She escaped with her parents to Bel'zhun, a port city under Noxus control. There, she tried making money for her family alone, as they were still recovering. But, as much as she was brave, she couldn't gather enough money for them. Until she got an invitation to enroll herself in a Noxian war band and accepted it.

As a rookie, she impressed everyone with her talents with the sword, pistol, acrobatics and athletics and also with her terrible discipline. At the end of her training, no one wanted to accept her, except one captain: Indari, which valued her audacity. This way, Samira ended up in Indari's personal squadron, specialized in particularly tough missions, which was everything Samira wanted. Time went on, and she had fun on her dangerous missions, until one day, as they fought against a separatist group, there was an explosion in the fortress they were at. Samira threw herself into the destruction to save Indira, lost an eye, but managed to rescue her captain, who lost the use of her legs.

With this tragedy, the squadron was dismissed and Samira was bored again. She decided to go after Indari to propose her a deal: only the two of them working together, Indira in the back lines finding missions and Samira executing them. And so, a promising partnership came along, with this champion gaining more and more fame as her daring deeds piled on.

The Champion

In League of Legends, Samira is a markswoman that can fight at melee or long range.

She counts with great mobility and aggression, rewarding daring plays. Her passive is Daredevil Impulse, which increases her movement speed in a combo represented by a ranking from E to S for each different thing she does in a short amount of time.

Her passive allows her to use her pistol for targets at long range or the sword for melee range, dealing extra damage with the sword. Besides that, if she attacks an immobile target, she dashes rapidly up to her sword's range.

Her other skills are Flair, which allows a shot from her pistol or an AoE strike with her sword, Blade Whirl, which swirls her sword destroying enemy projectiles and dealing damage, and Wild Rush, which allows her to dash rapidly dealing damage and possibly using Flair to attack as she does.

Her ultimate, Inferno Trigger, can only be used if she reached her passive's S rank, and it allows her to deal great AoE damage with numerous pistol shots.

Her Legends of Runeterra version brought daring, aggression and, most importantly, her rankings. She is a 2 cost champion with Quick Attack who already creates a Flair when played and every time you attack if you already don't have one in hand. Flair deals 1 damage to the enemy Nexus with her pistol, or gives Challenger to an ally for 1 round with her sword. She levels up when her Daredevil Impulses are satisfied, that is, when she sees you play six cards. But that must be done before you start a turn with the Attack token, otherwise the counter resets.

Her level 2 allows her to create unlimited Flairs in hand and reduces their cost to 0. Besides that, if you play 6 cards she will Rally. And this time the counter doesn't reset in between attacks.

Other Cards

Samira brought a mercenary group to participate in Sett's tournament with many cards that take advantage of Plunder. This is a good combination for this champion, as one of her Flair effects is dealing damage to the Nexus, activating Plunder for her allies.

Elegant Edge is a card with a lot of potential as it can activate Plunder early on but also benefits from this effect afterward. Dashing Dandy is a more powerful Iron Ballista in case you activate its Plunder effect, but he can grow even more with Daring Demolisher's and Adroit Artificer effects, which reactivate Plunder effects. Out of these, Demolisher looks the most efficient out of the bunch as it costs less, but Artificer is much more powerful if you can keep a full board of Plunder units.

We also have Pirouette as an excellent spell to activate Plunder or to reduce the number of enemies which can block, removing units with 1 health and stunning the bigger ones. And we also have Stylish Shot which allows you to activate your units' Plunder effect before combat many times if used successfully.

As part of her kit, Samira also brings cards outside her region.

Coming from Bilgewater, we have Inferna, which brings card draw when you Plunder and also allows Plunder with her elusive attack, but she shouldn't see much play as the cards are fleeting, and you have to use a card to get cards back, which goes beyond the aggressive style. Father Fury is much more promising, refilling mana and creating cards, which works best for her deck due to its short-term effect.

We also have Brazen Buccaneer which can go into your deck to expand your board with units that are tough to be blocked through the new keyword Brash, which can only be blocked by units with 3 health or more. Finally, Barbed Chain is precisely the type of card draw that an aggressive deck wants to see and should see a lot of play in Bilgewater, even without Samira.

Possible Decks

As a champion, Samira is very independent. Just like Sett, her level up is not dependent on her kit, which gives her a lot of freedom. She can be played in Plunder decks with Gangplank on Eternal, as he was rotated, or Sejuani, dealing lots of damage with Flair, or even with aggressive decks, using her as a versatile 2 mana units that takes advantage of the damage caused by Miss Fortune alongside her Quick Attack.

But other decks can also take advantage of Flair's Challenger effect. Units with Quick Attack such as Master Yi can use this keyword to easily remove units, besides also profiting from seeing numerous cards being played. In this aspect, we also have barrier units, possibly with Shen who was only used with Demacia before precisely because of Challengers. Finally, Ashe can also take advantage of this effect to force 0 attack units to block.

Sett is also a good combination as Coins from his kit allow many cards to be played at once. Besides that, he is a champion that benefits from Rally, specially if he's leveled.

Just like Sett, Samira works independently of her cards and can see a lot of play. She is quite versatile and might fulfill many roles, including completing any deck that only uses 1 Noxus champion, just as Diana did in Targon as it was a great 2 cost card.

Jack really is a winner. Displeased with being only the second exclusive champion, he decided to take on a new title: he is the first follower to be promoted to champion status. We don't know much about his story, but Riot has shared a few pieces of information in the past and the rest we can assume from his cards.

Jack is part shark and was a fighter in a fighting ring in a boat in Bilgewater, called The King's Court. Just like Sett, he went from champion of the Arena to his owner, possibly through a Tahm Kench contract, who uses the arena as battling grounds to find new victims. But we don't know if Jack owes this catfish. It is quite possible the restaurant where this champion is in his card is part of his ship as we can see many sharks in the artwork.

Jack is quite known for being calm, friendly, and keeping his cool with his friends, but also for his extreme violence against his enemies and foes. His scepter and his tattoos with octopus and tentacle symbols might indicate he's devoted to Nagakabouros, Illaoi's goddess.

He also got an invitation from Sett for his Ionia tournament, received through Fortune Croaker. His cards show the fight between the two champions.

The Champion

Jack is an exclusive champion, so we have no other version to compare him to. As a champion, he has very strong stats for his cost, as a 4 mana 4/5 with the new keyword, Brash, meaning he can only be blocked by enemies with 3 or more health, which means at 5 health, he usually gets good trades in this mana curve. Besides that, he creates a Coin each time he strikes, making every strike worth it.

To reach his level 2, you need to spend 12 mana in a single turn. That can be done naturally on turns 9 or 10, or through Coins he creates. After that, Jack transforms into a real monster. When striking he will create 2 Coins and each time you refill mana, he gets +1|+0 for each mana refilled. Alongside the Overwhelm he gets, he will finish games quickly.

Other Cards

Jack's crew consists of other smaller fighters, but equally violent. His cards are capable of creating or using coins and taking advantage of Brash to deal Nexus damage.

Among the most impactful cards we have Barknuckles, which besides stats gives a keyword and an effect for just 2 mana and should see a lot of play. We also have Prize Fight as a removal card that, when successful, practically recovers your investment through Coins. Nukkle shows a great reward for using Coins bringing Mako, Bull and Rally if you can complete the combo.

Prize Fight is a spell made to guarantee your Brash units can attack easily while you take advantage of Bilgewater's ability to slay 1 cost units.

Five-Punch Pablo marks the return of Boxtopus to the rings, and with just 1 life there's no real way to punish it through Prize Fight and, in a certain way, The King's Court does something similar, guaranteeing your next units will get Brash as you remove blockers. This time the 7 cost isn't so costly, as this deck will be great at recovering mana spent and with just 4 coins you can already level up Jack in the turn you play this boat.

We also have Pocket Picker, Mad Ol' Babs and Angel as basic units for the deck, but Babs has real potential if she gets Brash or another keyword.

Possible Decks

Jack was clearly made to be Sett's pair, as they both share an interest in Coins and mana spent. Besides Jack's criteria for leveling up also being the same for Sett to create Show Stopper, which besides removing a blocker damages the rest of the board, helping with Jack's Overwhelm and Brash.

This Winner has potential with Trundle in Eternal as it also benefits from Ice Pillar. Nami and Attune units might be good choices with mana refill. It is possible to try Piltover&Zaun too because of the mana refill through Formula, Forge Chief and the rest, but there are no other benefits to this region combination.

As a striking champion, Jack can also do well in Demacia using Single Combat, Concerted Strike or Fish Fight. Even Winds of War can be a good option as he has a lot of health.

Unlike the others, Jack is dependent on his cards. Though that reduces his use, it doesn't hinder him from being placed in other regions. Even then, this might be the biggest reason to play Coins, so they must be strong in this set.

Though this set is small, it brings mechanics which are quite different to the game and that should speed up matches a lot. But, it is a smaller set than expected as we'll have rotation, which will reduce the number of cards available and looks quite focused on itself, so we might not have much deck variety when the meta is settled.

Anyhow, it is always nice to get an exclusive champion and even more as it is an already known champion. It's a sign we can see new followers being promoted to this status.

Tell us in the comment section which champion and deck are you most anxious to test out! And also which follower would you like to see as a champion!