How Mysterious Portals and Norra work in Legends of Runeterra

Norra has returned home, bringing with her knowledge and wisdom of the Mysterious Portal that she’ll use to her advantage as a champion in Legends of Runeterra. 

Boons and Traps take up a unique design space within Legends of Runeterra, providing an advantage to the controller and a disadvantage to an opponent. The effects are based on RNG, typically making the archetypes powerful enough to play on the ladder but not consistent enough for organized play. 

Norra is the fourth LoR champion to have a Boon or Trap worked into their design. Similar to Bard, the Yordle champion plants Boons called Mysterious Portals in your deck. The Boon attaches itself to a card in its controller’s deck and activates when that card is drawn. 

Mysterious Portal LoR Boon

Upon activating, a Mysterious Portal summons a random two or three-cost follower. The Mysterious Portal won’t summon followers that have “Play effects, Plunder, Day, or Nightfall,” according to game designer Jon Moorman. If a player’s board is full (six slots), the follower that was summoned has its cost reduced to zero and becomes a Fleeting copy in hand. 

Norra and her LoR spell

Norra plants one Mysterious Portal Boons in her controller’s deck every time she strikes the Nexus, placing the Boon on one of the top four cards in the deck. Unlike Bard, the Norra LoR support package doesn’t include a one-drop that can start stacking Boons in a player’s deck. The earliest a Mysterious Boon can get put into the deck is on turn two, either through Norra herself or a chump block from Junk Construct. 

When six or more followers have been summoned during a game, Norra levels up. She still plants a Mysterious Portal upon Nexus Strike in the top four cards of her controller’s deck, but her level up changes the cost of followers that can get summoned through the Mysterious Portal. As long as Norra is on the battlefield and a Mysterious Portal Boon is activated, it will summon either a four, five, six, or seven-cost follower instead. 

Synergizing with Norra once she is leveled up is her champion spell, Portalpalooza, because traveling to various Runeterra regions is a party. And Norra wants the friends she’s made along the way to join her team. Portalpalooza plants two Mysterious Portals randomly in the top four cards of its controller’s deck and then draws a card, potentially activating one of the Boons it just placed. 

The Norra LoR support package

The power level of a Mysterious Portal Boon can vary, from super impactful to a flat-out whiff. Since the follower summoned is based on RNG, the balance team controls the overall power level of Norra and her portals through the champion’s support package. 

As of writing, the only followers who can plant a Mysterious Portal in their controller’s deck are The Tea Maker and Junk Construct. The Tea Maker plants one upon getting summoned Junk Construct plants one as a Last Breath effect. 

Spells that can plant Mysterious Portal Boons are Norra’s champion spell, Magical Journey, and Eclectic Collection. Magical Journey is a two-drop Burst speed spell that plants one Mysterious Portal in the top four cards of its controller’s deck while also randomly planting three Chimes throughout the deck. And Eclectic Collection plants every Trap and Boon in LoR into both your deck and the opponent’s deck. 

Norra LoR decks

Norra and the Awakening expansion have yet to be officially released, dropping into live servers on Aug. 31. Updates to champion pairing and various archetypes that synergize well with Norra will get updated following the expansion’s launch.