Taliyah
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Good (7.5/10)
High Investment Required
Epic Relics
Rare Relics OK
Taliyah is a champion with a massive power ceiling that requires significant investment. While considered 'weak' or 'clunky' at lower star levels, she becomes a powerhouse at 3 stars and beyond. Her playstyle of duplicating herself to 'print' damage is unique, though some players find the board space management and landmark mechanics frustrating.
The Taliyah Printer
The cornerstone of Taliyah's strongest strategies. It provides a landmark to duplicate immediately and summons a copy of Taliyah after its countdown, allowing you to have multiple champions on board to multiply her skill damage.
Increases the damage of Taliyah's 'Threaded Volley' skills. Because Taliyah's copies also cast skills, this damage boost stacks effectively.
At 6 stars (or as a Luden's alternative), this provides massive scaling for her elemental skills and spells, outclassing Luden's in raw stats and late-game scaling.
Strategy
Use Taliyah's play effect to duplicate the Frozen Tomb. When the tombs pop, you will have multiple Taliyahs on board. When attacking, each Taliyah casts Threaded Volley, dealing massive skill damage boosted by your other relics. Be mindful of the 10-item stack limit.
Turn 1 Aggro
- Provides a landmark to trigger C4 mana refund and a target for duplication.
Deals damage to the enemy Nexus at Round Start, enabling Plunder effects immediately.
Plunder: I cost 2 less. Combined with Swain's Raven Army and starting mana powers, this allows you to drop Taliyah on Turn 1 to start your engine immediately.
Strategy
This build focuses on speed. By triggering Plunder automatically with Swain's relic, you can play Taliyah instantly, duplicate your Tomb, and overwhelm the opponent before they can set up.
Control & Rally
Stuns all enemies when Taliyah levels up. Taliyah levels up easily by destroying/duplicating landmarks, providing a massive defensive swing or opening the board for a lethal attack.
Rallies when Taliyah levels up. Combined with the stun from Tempest Blade, this often results in an immediate game-ending attack.- Ensures you have a landmark to advance her level-up condition and an extra body for the attack turn.
Strategy
Focus on advancing your landmarks to trigger Taliyah's level up. Once she flips, you stun the entire enemy board and rally for a free open attack.
Other Relic Options
Excellent for ramping into Taliyah early if you do not have her C5 Manaflow power yet, or to guarantee a Turn 1 drop with Luminous Orb.
Required to activate Starforged Gauntlets; adds survivability.
A budget alternative to Scourge's Stash for cost reduction if you can reliably damage the nexus.
A niche option that becomes powerful if you acquire powers that double stats or buff spells.
Constellation
Taliyah is a champion who feels incomplete at lower stars but scales exponentially. She is a 'stat deck' that relies on overwhelming the opponent with large units and skill damage. Board space is her biggest enemy.
Good Morning, Grumpy
Game Start: Summon a Hibernating Rockbear.
Recycled Stone
+1 Starting Mana. When an allied landmark is destroyed, grant allies +1|+0.Review
Summons a Hibernating Rockbear at Game Start. Note: This creates a unique interaction where items like 'Home Turf' on Rockbears will fail to summon a second copy.
Good Morning, Grumpy II
Game Start: Summon a Hibernating Rockbear. Allies have +1|+1 and Overwhelm.Review
Grants Overwhelm to all allies. This is the tipping point where she becomes a 'real deck', allowing her massive stats to actually end games.
Supple Stone
Each round, the first time you play a landmark, refill mana equal to its cost.Review
Refunds 1 mana the first time you play a landmark each round. This is a massive tempo boost, allowing you to weave in Ancient Preparations or Rockbears alongside Taliyah.
Manaflow
Game Start: Get a mana gem.
Throw Another Rock!
When an ally attacks, it plays Threaded Volley. Your spells and skills deal 1 extra damage for each allied Landmark.Review
Significantly boosts skill damage based on landmarks (or adds Overwhelm/Stats depending on patch context, but usually associated with massive damage scaling). It turns her into a damage monster but can lead to 'stack overflow' issues where too many skills fizzle due to the game's limit.
Gameplay Tips
Manage Your Board Space
Taliyah struggles with the 6-unit board limit. Between her C2 Rockbear, played landmarks, and duplicated champions, you can easily lock yourself out of playing units. Be willing to destroy your own landmarks or trade units aggressively to make space.
The Spell Stack Limit
Legends of Runeterra has a limit of roughly 9 items on the spell stack. If you have three Taliyahs on board (via Frozen Tomb) and you attack, they will each put 3 skills on the stack (Threaded Volley x3). This can fill the stack completely, causing other spells or skills to fizzle. At C6, this is less of an issue as you need fewer hits to kill, but be aware of it.
Don't Cut Starting Landmarks
It might be tempting to cut cards like Ancient Preparations to thin your deck, but these are vital for Taliyah. They provide cheap landmarks to trigger her C4 mana refund, advance her level-up condition, and cycle your deck.
Turn 1 Lethal Setup
With the right setup (Frozen Tomb + Cost Reduction), you can drop Taliyah Turn 1, duplicate the Tomb, and potentially level her up immediately if you have advanced other landmarks. This allows for 'shenanigans' where you attack with multiple champions on the very first turn.