Viego
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Excellent (9.5/10)
Low Investment
Rare Relics OK
Viego is widely considered an exceptionally powerful champion, often ranked within the top tier alongside Swain and Aurelion Sol. His strategic depth and high reliability in difficult content contribute to a rewarding experience for both veteran and newer accounts. While his power scale increases dramatically with investment, particularly at higher star levels, his core mechanics allow him to tackle advanced content effectively even without a full suite of paid relics.
The Ruined King's Optimal Setup
Reduces Viego's cost by one for each ally in play, facilitating a turn-one drop. The strike on allies triggers Encroaching Mist summons and hand-wide cost reductions immediately.
Summons an exact ephemeral copy of supported followers. This is essential for generating multiple Encroaching Mists per attack, accelerating Viego's leveling process and overall stat growth.
Grants an extra starting mana gem, which is crucial for early tempo and ensuring Viego hits the board before aggressive enemies can overwhelm the board.
Strategy
This configuration focuses on maximizing turn-one potential. Disciple of Shadows synergistic interaction with Viego's star powers allows for immediate board presence and scaling. Spectral Scissors ensures that the mist generation is doubled during attacks, making it nearly impossible for the enemy to maintain board control.
Sustainable Control Build
- Essential for early board entry and triggering on-death effects for hand-wide cost reduction.
Viego strikes the weakest enemy when summoned. This often results in a kill that summons an Encroaching Mist and reduces the cost of cards in hand.
Allows Viego to consume allies (like mists or stolen units) to gain their stats and keywords. This provides Viego with permanent scaling and necessary keywords like Lifesteal or Overwhelm if drafted.
Strategy
A more balanced approach that focuses on board interaction and Viego's survival. Stalker's Blade provides immediate removal, while Corrupted Star Fragment ensures Viego becomes a massive threat that can eventually close the game independently if board space becomes limited.
Reliable Progression Build
- Provides reliable removal and triggers Viego's engine upon entry.
- Ensures Viego scales to a big unit and provides a reliable way to clear board space by consuming allies.
Grants Overwhelm, ensuring Viego can translate his massive stats into Nexus damage, especially on accounts lacking his 4th star power.
Strategy
Designed for newer accounts without access to epic-tier relics. This build relies on the core synergy between Stalker's Blade and Corrupted Star Fragment to manage the board while building Viego into a big finisher. Overwhelm is mandatory here to ensure victory isn't stalled by chump blockers.
Other Relic Options
Highly effective for protecting Viego from targeted removal in adventures like Viego or Lissandra.
Shuffles high-stat level 2 champions into the deck. Paired with Star Gems, this can create an alternative win condition that doesn't solely rely on Viego.
Can be utilized in specialized builds to pull critical combo pieces like Camavoran Hydravine, though generally lower priority than direct combat relics.
Relics that focus on stats alone, like Caulfield's Warhammer, are considered low-impact because Viego scales naturally through his engine. Avoid relics like The Curator's Gatebreaker, as Viego's base stats are too small to make the strike valuable compared to other options.
Constellation
Viego's constellation provides one of the most consistent power curves in the game. His upgrades focus on enhancing his mists and providing the necessary keywords to make his board overwhelming. He is particularly effective at countering modifiers that target created cards, as his primary scaling comes from the mists and inherent cost reductions.
Beyond the Mists
Each round, the first time you slay an ally, summon an Encroaching Mist.
Harrowed Path
+1 Starting mana. When an ally with 4+ power dies, reduce the cost of all 4+ power allies in hand by 1.
Beyond the Mists II
Each round, the first time you slay an ally, and the first time you slay an enemy summon an Encroaching Mist.
Crush
Allies have Overwhelm.Review
A major utility spike. Granting Encroaching Mists the Challenger keyword transforms them from mere stat-boosters into precise removal tools, allowing you to pick apart the enemy's board at will.
Manaflow
Game Start: Get a mana gem.Review
Crucial for high-end content. The extra mana gem significantly reduces the risk of 'bricking' in the first two turns against hyper-aggressive enemies.
All Will Serve
When you summon a Encroaching Mist, grant allies Everywhere +1|+0.Review
A definitive power upgrade. By doubling the stat bonus granted to allies everywhere when a mist is summoned, Viego's entire deck scales at an exponential rate, often rendering even the most resilient bosses irrelevant by round three.
Gameplay Tips
- Initial Turn Priority
Focus on getting fodder units like Camavoran Soldier on the board immediately. The priority is to trigger the first few Encroaching Mists as quickly as possible to begin the hand-wide cost reduction and buff Viego for his eventual entry.
- Board Space Management
Viego can easily flood the board with mists and stolen units. Use relics like Corrupted Star Fragment to consume unnecessary units, ensuring there is always space to summon a new Encroaching Mist at the start of each round or during an attack.
- Drafting Strategy
Always prioritize Shadow Isles support champions (like Kindred, Kalista, or Mordekaiser) to keep the card pool focused on slay and revive effects. High-cost units are also valuable draft picks, as Viego's engine will eventually reduce them to zero cost.
- Managing Aggressive Encounters
Against wide boards like the Spiderlings in his own adventure, don't be afraid to sacrifice health to set up your engine. Viego is a late-game champion who wins through inevitability; surviving the first two turns is often the only real challenge.
- Utilizing Leveled Viego
Once Viego is leveled, he steals the strongest enemy at the start of each round. Plan your attacks to ensure these stolen units are either sacrificed for value or used to block, preventing them from returning to the enemy hand if your board is full.