Shyvana
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Poor (4/10)
High Investment Required
Epic Relics
Shyvana is frequently assessed as a lower-tier champion who suffers from a slow tempo and a starting deck that lacks synergy with her core mechanics. While her potential for scaling is high, she requires significant investment in her constellation to become effective in high-difficulty content, and even then, she is often outperformed by other Demacian options.
The Dragon Printer (Optimal Build)
Critical for increasing the density of Shyvana copies in the deck. This ensures her champion spell, Confront, is consistently available to provide barrier and stat buffs.
Allows Shyvana to attack safely to trigger Fury and her Star Power strikes without risk of dying to high-stat enemies.
Provides essential Overwhelm for the entire board and grants a stat boost to all Dragon and Elite units in the deck.
Strategy
This build focuses on utilizing Echoing Spirit to cycle Shyvana's champion spell. By repeatedly casting Confront, you provide Shyvana with constant barrier protection and permanent stat growth via Fated and Fury. Death's Foil ensures she survives these exchanges, while The Beast Within provides the necessary evasion to close games.
Tempo Ramp Build
Provides an extra starting mana gem, which is vital for reaching Shyvana and her larger dragons faster.
Used in combination with Starforged Gauntlets to provide the necessary stats to reach Titanic status while offering mana refill upon leveling up.
Provides a significant health boost to reach Titanic thresholds and transforms Shyvana's high-health units into formidable offensive threats.
Strategy
This high-investment setup aims to solve Shyvana's primary weakness: her slow start. By manipulating her stats to reach Titanic status, you gain an extra mana gem, allowing you to play her earlier and begin scaling her dragons before the opponent's board becomes insurmountable.
Other Relic Options
Synergizes well with her champion spell to trigger Fated and Augment, quickly reaching the Empowered 10 threshold for Challenger and Regeneration.
Triggers an immediate strike upon summon, which can count toward Shyvana's level-up and trigger Fury to grow her stats before the first combat.
Provides a Rally on level-up, which is highly effective given Shyvana's tendency to level up mid-combat via her strike mechanics.
Ensures that spell mana is available to cast Confront immediately after Shyvana is summoned, maintaining her protection.
Shyvana is highly flexible with keyword relics, but generally requires either protection (Barrier/Death's Foil) or mana acceleration to function in Nightmare-level adventures.
Constellation
Shyvana's constellation is designed to transition her from a mid-range deck into a late-game scaling powerhouse. Her bonus stars are notably impactful, particularly the node that reduces the cost of drafted dragons by 2, which is often considered more essential than her higher-tier star powers.
Dragon Breath
When you summon a Dragon, it deals 3 to the weakest enemy.
Fury of the Brood
+1 Starting Mana. All allied dragons have Fury. Your Fury buffs are granted to all Dragon allies in play and in hand.
Dragon Breath II
When you summon a Dragon, it strikes the weakest enemy.
Fortifications
Your Nexus is Tough.Review
The inclusion of Nexus Tough is a defensive utility that helps mitigate chip damage in slower games, though it is often viewed as a low-impact upgrade compared to the cost-reduction nodes.
Manaflow
Game Start: Get a mana gem.Review
The extra mana gem is the most significant power spike in her progression, enabling a turn 2 Shyvana play which is mandatory for surviving aggressive high-level encounters.
Call of the Brood
When allies attack, draw a unit, if it's a Dragon summon it attacking.Review
The 6-star power offers a powerful summon mechanic that mirrors Protective Broodfather. However, its effectiveness is highly RNG-dependent; failing to draw a dragon makes this power feel inconsistent for a max-level investment. It works best in decks that have been aggressively thinned of non-dragon units.
Gameplay Tips
- Prioritize the Support Dragon Node
Acquiring the constellation node that ensures your support champion is a dragon is one of the single most important upgrades. This increases the consistency of your Fury triggers and ensures your drafting phase is focused on your core subtype.
- Aggressively Cut Non-Dragon Units
Shyvana's core mechanics and her 6-star power rely on dragon density. Use every available healer or event node to remove non-dragon followers from your deck to ensure your summons and strikes always hit the correct targets.
- Use Confront Proactively
Confront is not just a removal spell; it is your primary scaling tool. With Echoing Spirit, you should aim to cast this every turn to trigger Fated and provide barrier. The barrier is essential because Shyvana needs to survive strikes to grow her stats via Fury.
- Focus on Tempo Over Value
Shyvana's biggest threat is a wide board early in the game. Look for powers or items that provide mana reduction or early blockers, as her dragons are often too expensive to protect the Nexus in the first three rounds.
- Leverage the Fury/Stalker Interaction
If using Stalker's Blade, ensure Shyvana's attack power is high enough to kill the target. A successful kill on summon grants her a Fury stack, which increases the damage of her subsequent Star Power strike, creating a snowball effect.