Anivia
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Good (7.5/10)
High Investment Required
Rare Relics OK
Anivia offers an incredibly high power ceiling with near-infinite value loops in the late game, but she suffers from a slow, vulnerable early game. She requires significant investment in star powers to smooth out her mana curve and ensure survival against aggressive encounters.
The Eternal Storm
The cornerstone of Anivia's kit. Once you reach 6 mana, this doubles every spell, granting massive healing, board wipes, and accelerating her leveling condition.
Essential for the 'Zombie Anivia' strategy. When Anivia dies, she transforms into an egg. Guardian Angel revives her as a champion while the egg remains, effectively duplicating her. This creates an army of Anivias over time.
Provides Challenger, Overwhelm, and Tough. Challenger allows you to intentionally sacrifice Anivia into enemy units to trigger Guardian Angel's revive, while Overwhelm is critical for converting her board control into a Nexus victory.
Strategy
This build focuses on reaching the 6-mana threshold to activate Chemtech Duplicator. Use the Challenger keyword from Full Build to trade Anivia into enemies, triggering Guardian Angel to respawn her while leaving an Egg behind. This rapidly fills the board with multiple copies of Anivia, all amplifying your spell output. Overwhelm ensures matches do not drag on unnecessarily.
Glacial Printing
Summons a Frozen Tomb landmark at game start. When it counts down, it summons a copy of Anivia (which creates an egg upon death) and triggers her revive loops earlier.- Works in tandem with Frozen Tomb to maximize the number of Anivia copies on the board.
- Multiplies the effectiveness of all spells once the board is established.
Strategy
This setup is designed for maximum consistency in generating Anivia copies. Frozen Tomb provides an additional Anivia early in the match, accelerating the 'printer' engine. This variant is safer against removal but sacrifices the offensive keywords provided by Full Build.
Arcane Ascension
- Doubles spells to control the board and heal.
- Provides insurance and duplication via the egg mechanic.
Increases the damage of her skills and spells. Since you will likely have multiple Anivias on board, this damage bonus stacks effectively.
Strategy
A build accessible with only Rare relics. It focuses on raw spell damage output. Without Overwhelm, this build relies on slowly grinding the opponent down with repeated 'Glacial Storm' triggers and duplicated spells.
Other Relic Options
A strong alternative to Full Build. It grants Overwhelm to the entire board, which is vital for closing games quickly once you have established a wide board of Anivias.
Provides a significant damage boost to elemental skills. While powerful, it can be situational as the damage applies to the entire board, potentially harming your own units if not managed carefully.
Adds consistency by placing more copies of Anivia in the deck and reducing the cost of her champion spell, 'Harsh Winds', which acts as a powerful defensive tool.
Avoid 'Frost Breath' (Anivia's signature relic) as it provides minimal impact compared to generic options. 'Portal Pals' is also ineffective due to the interaction with her 1-cost Egg form.
Constellation
Anivia is heavily reliant on her constellation upgrades to function smoothly. Without them, her early game is perilous and slow. Her 3-star power is the engine that allows her to function, interacting with Elemental spells to ramp mana. She is a champion that feels significantly better at 5 and 6 stars compared to 3.
Winter's Boon
When you play an Elemental spell or Elemental Skill, gain a temporary mana gem next round.
Glacial Overflow
+1 Starting Mana. If you're Enlightened, when you'd gain a mana gem, grant allies +1|+1 instead.
Winter's Boon II
When you play an Elemental spell or Elemental Skill, gain an empty mana gem.
Endurance
When an ally survives damage, grant it +1|+1.Review
Provides regeneration and stat buffs upon taking damage. While useful for survivability, it does not fundamentally change her game plan or solve her early-game tempo issues.
Manaflow
Game Start: Get a mana gem.Review
Essential. The 'Manaflow' gem allows Anivia to curve out properly, enabling a Turn 2 'Harsh Winds' or an earlier Anivia drop. This upgrade transforms her early game from a struggle into a consistent setup.
Crystallize
When enemies attack, Frostbite the strongest attacker. Enemies with 0 power take double damage.Review
An excellent defensive tool that Frostbites the strongest attacking enemy. This creates a safety net that allows Anivia to stall until her late-game engine comes online. The double damage against 0-power units also synergizes perfectly with Overwhelm strategies.
Gameplay Tips
The Egg Printer Mechanic
Anivia's strongest mechanic involves Guardian Angel. When she dies with this relic equipped, she spawns her Egg form and revives a copy of herself. This leaves you with one active Anivia and one Egg (which will hatch into another Anivia). Use this to your advantage by blocking with her or using Challenger to force trades, rapidly filling your board with champions.
Banking for Harsh Winds
In the early game, especially without the 5-star Manaflow upgrade, it is often correct to pass Turn 1 completely. This banks spell mana, allowing you to cast 'Harsh Winds' on Turn 2 to neutralize aggressive enemy boards and survive until you can deploy Anivia.
Drafting for Elements
Anivia's star powers synergize with Elemental spells and skills. Prioritize drafting cards with the Elemental tag to accelerate your mana ramp. Support champions with Elemental packages (like Volibear or Kennen) are highly valuable.
Beware of Gorlith
Anivia's deck includes 'Clash of Titans', which summons a Titan from your deck. If you have not cut the card 'Gorlith' (which swaps Health and Power) from your deck, this spell can accidentally summon a unit that drastically reduces your Nexus health, potentially losing you the game. Exercise caution when casting this spell if Gorlith is still in the deck.
Overwhelm is Mandatory
Anivia excels at controlling the board but struggles to finish the game. The AI will often chump-block her high-power units indefinitely. You must prioritize relics (Full Build, The Beast Within) or powers (Crush) that grant Overwhelm to ensure you can close out matches efficiently.