Now that Gnar has been out for a bit over a month, let’s take a look at how this tiny-turned-mighty champion took over the meta by working well with just about everyone and everything.
Legends of Runeterra’s latest core expansion set is coming to a close. ‘A Curious Journey’ released four new champions: Galio, Yuumi, Udyr, and the subject of this article – Gnar. While Galio and Yuumi found their way into some specialized decks that play into their strengths, like Galio/Soraka and Pantheon/Yuumi, it feels like Gnar managed to squeeze his way into every possible archetype. In this article, we’re going to take a look at how Gnar is able to fit in so well in so many different decks to help you grow your understanding of the game and how deckbuilding synergies work.
To begin, let’s break down why Gnar himself is strong in his own right. In his level-one form, he’s a 4-mana, 3|3 unit with Quick Attack from the Freljord and Bandle City regions. On the offensive side, his reasonable power combined with Quick Attack enables him to typically out-trade units with equal and lower costs to his own when attacking. While his three health is unremarkable generally, the fact that it’s paired with the Freljord gives him access to healing and health buffs like Troll Chant and Elixir of Iron, both of which would put him up to five health and out of the range of most damaging spells that could kill him immediately after being played.
The fact that he generates a Pokey Stick on top of these factors is what pushes him from being good to being great, as this card lets him activate his level up condition easily while also drawing out another card for you to use. When Gnar levels up, becoming a 6|5 unit with Quick Attack and Overwhelm who gives the strongest enemy Vulnerable, he is able to compound upon all of the above strengths by being able to secure kills on the enemy’s core units and deal damage to the Nexus while doing so.
While Gnar is quite the force to be reckoned with on his own, he does need some help from followers and spells to help him set-up to win the game. Here are some cards that have some gnarly synergies with our prehistoric yordle friend, starting with some more information about some cards that we’ve already discussed.
You might be thinking to yourself: if Gnar generates a Pokey Stick or otherwise reduces its cost every time he strikes, why would you choose to put three copies of Pokey Stick in your main deck? Aside from the fact that Pokey Stick is an excellent card which both deals damage and replaces itself in your hand with another card for only two mana, keeping copies in your main deck allows you to very flexibly level Gnar up regardless of when he’s played. If you play Gnar when you have the attack token, you can reduce the cost of a Pokey Stick in your hand to level-up Gnar for just one mana; if you play Gnar when you don’t have the attack token, you can level up Gnar without needing to risk his life by attacking.
If you’re leaning into Gnar’s Freljord regionality rather than Bandle City, you have access to all of the Freljord’s health-boosting tools to keep Gnar safe. Both Troll Chant and Elixir of Iron allow Gnar to attack safely against enemies that might be able to retaliate, along with keeping Gnar safe against damaging spells that might be able to pierce through Gnar’s relatively low three health. While you might want to put three copies of Troll Chant into your deck just because it's an excellent card anyway, putting one or two copies of Elixir of Iron might just allow you to swing the tide of the game right when it matters most.
This one-cost, 2|1 yordle might not seem like the best unit to play on your first turn in terms of stats, but the landmark that she generates is what really makes her special. This Scrappy Bomb detonates three turns after it is summoned, dealing one damage to the enemy Nexus. The keenest among you might realize that if you play Inventive Chemist on turn one, this means that the Scrappy Bomb detonates on turn four, just in time for you to play down Gnar on the same round and have him level up at the end of that round! Even if you don’t have Gnar, there are other cards you can play on this turn to extract value from that singular damage to the enemy Nexus, such as…
Teenydactyl is another card that you can play on turn four to build upon Inventive Chemist’s momentum in order to gain value. While it might be an underwhelming 4|3 unit in its base form, when it transforms after being on the board when you end a round after doing damage to the enemy Nexus, it becomes a spectacular 6|5 unit with Impact who deals damage to the enemy Nexus at the start of each round. This repeating damage means that if you have to play Gnar on turn five instead of turn four, you can still level him up easily and without needing to spend extra mana using a Pokey Stick to damage the enemy Nexus.
Moving back down the mana ladder, we get back to Gnar’s friends from Nakotak Valley, the Stone Stackers. This two-mana 2|3 follower with Impact proves to be a force to be reckoned with due to its decent health and keyword. When utilized well, Stone Stackers will be able either attack twice (notably activating Impact both times) or be able to attack on one turn, then block on the next (or vice versa). Either way, these yordles are great at enabling Gnar’s level-up condition and are generally able to trade positively against other units that will be on the board early in the game.
Building upon more ways to enable Gnar, while Poison Dart might not be worth keeping three copies of in your deck, it is certainly worth considering as a back-up plan to level up Gnar in a pinch. Its main benefit is that it allows you to deal one damage to the enemy Nexus for only one mana, meaning that if you want to level Gnar up on turn four and you didn’t play Inventive Chemist on turn one, you only need to have saved one spell mana to get Gnar to go mega. While the three Poison Puffcaps this card plants in the enemy deck are somewhat negligible outside of Puffcap centric decks, they can sometimes be game savers if you get lucky.
Another spell that helps Gnar in a different way is Yordles in Arms. This spell distinctly benefits decks which want to play down a lot of units (often called ‘going wide’) and win the game via attacking with plenty of units at once. What Yordles in Arms does is gives all units +2|+2 for one round, giving them +3|+3 instead if you have summoned allies from four or more regions over the course of the game. When you have a unit like Gnar who hits hard paired with a bunch of multi-region units from Bandle City who can attack with him, a spell like Yordles in Arms is great for ending games.
Ending this list of followers and spells with a bit of a ‘cheesier’ entry, Papercraft Dragon can be a great tool for enabling Gnar to finish the game if you’re focusing on building Gnar up (often called ‘going tall’) to pierce through enemies with Overwhelm rather than relying on out-of-combat damage or using a full board of units to end the game. Papercraft Dragon serves a five-mana, 2|2 unit with the Attach and Double Attack keywords, meaning that it can grant Gnar extra stats and Double Attack. This means that when he’s in his second-level mega form, he can often kill a unit with his first attack and then hit the Nexus for at least seven damage with his second attack. While this strategy is vulnerable to a bunch of cards, including those that Frostbite and the dreaded Minimorph, it is still a unique game-ending tool to consider adding to your decks.
While we’ve just covered some of the smaller cards that build into making a good Gnar deck, it’s the champions that really define how a deck wants to win the game. Let’s take a look at three different champions who play around three of the core ways that Gnar can try to win the game: going wide, going tall, and dealing plenty of small amounts of non-combat damage throughout the game.
Fizz, for the unfamiliar, is a one-mana, 2|1 champion who levels up after seeing you cast six spells and turns Elusive whenever you cast a spell, negating any spells that are targeting him in the process. As a cheap Elusive unit with the potential to level-up and grow even stronger, Fizz is great for a strategy where you ‘go wide’, summoning a bunch of cheap units and swinging at the enemy’s Nexus with a full board. Fizz, as a dual-region unit, also counts twice towards reaching the four-region threshold for Yordles in Arms. When combined with Gnar, who we’ve gone over the greatness of and who also provides another step towards getting the most out of Yordles in Arms, Fizz and Gnar pair together to make a great duo who fuel a wide-swinging deck effectively.
Transitioning from going wide to going tall, Renekton pairs very nicely with Gnar for a handful of reasons. As a four-mana, 4|4 champion with Overwhelm who becomes a 6|5 unit when challenging an enemy at level one, it should be obvious why he pairs so nicely with Gnar, who gives a unit Vulnerable when leveling up and therefore makes them able to be challenged. Both of these two champions are also prime candidates to attach a Papercraft Dragon to, as both of them can kill many units with the first hit and then deal their power directly to the Nexus on the second hit due to Overwhelm. If you’re interested in just smacking down the enemy with some big units, this deck is perfect for you.
Last but not least, Swain is a champion who pairs well with Gnar’s synergy with non-combat Nexus damage. Swain, as a five-mana, 3|6 Fearsome champion who levels up after you’ve dealt 12 non-combat damage and is himself able to damage enemies and the enemy Nexus by striking said Nexus, is incredibly effective when paired with Gnar’s desire to see the enemy Nexus take damage. Cards that work well with Gnar by dealing non-combat Nexus damage, such as Teenydactyl/Terrordactyl, Pokey Stick, and Poison Dart, all benefit Swain too, making them a dynamic duo when it comes to winning the game through chipping down the enemy Nexus.
From everything that has been said in this article, it is probably pretty clear how Gnar has managed to wriggle his way into seemingly every deck. He plays well with all sorts of decks that have all sorts of win conditions, making him a good champion to insert into a wide variety of archetypes. That being said, if you’re looking to deckbuild with Gnar, have fun experimenting with all of the synergies he has as a powerful champion who comes paired with strong removal in the form of making enemies vulnerable and the drawing potential he gets from Pokey Stick. Good luck working with Gnar and climbing your way up the Legends of Runeterra ranked ladder!
