Magic n' Mayhem Mechanics

A brief summary of the new and returning mechanics in Magic n’ Mayhem
Game Updates
Riot Prism

You arrive at the Magitorium with mystical aspirations. Perhaps you'll be a master of magics, a sorcerous scholar, or every mage's bff. Now, you're already a wizard when it comes to the 100+ Charms as you flex between different magical disciplines, and-- Wait... You haven't heard of Charms?! Well, at least you know about the various magical Origins in Magic n’ Mayhem right (coughs in hyperlink). No need to worry because we’ve got all the info you need to catch up on Charms and just a few of our new 150 or so Augments. This info will become vital once the set goes live with patch 14.15 on July 31st.

What Makes a Charm

Our new set mechanic for Magic n’ Mayhem is Charms. Charms are single-use purchasable spells of sorts that’ll appear in every other shop, replacing a champion slot. Charms only appear during PvP rounds, so feel free to roll down for specific champions during PvE (e.g. Krugs, Raptors, etc). You can buy one Charm per round, but you can always roll deep to dig for a more useful Charm—at least as deep as your Arena’s gold mines. Charms’ costs are based on their power and the stage they become available, with more expensive Charms being more powerful, but regardless of price, sometimes the best Charm is the one you can use the most creatively, so make sure to experiment!

Charms, Charms, Charms

While there are over 100 Charms, we can lump them into a couple different categories for convenience.

Charms that give combat power are the most abundant, with the ability to directly impact a fight through empowering your team, providing temporary (or sometimes permanent) items, or creating general mayhem on the board. With the examples below, we’ll start with Charms accessible early game (read: less expensive and powerful) and end with our late game ones.

  • Summon Dummy (0g): Gain a Target Dummy for 1 round. Use this temporary friend to get a slight advantage on your foe.
  • Assassin (4): Next combat start: Your highest Attack Damage champ jumps to the enemy backline. Flashbacks.
  • Treasure Hunter (2): Next combat: 1 unit without items gains an Unstable Treasure Chest. I think they found something…
  • Sunfire Sorcery (3): At the start of combat, Burn and Wound enemies for 10 seconds
  • Animate Bench (4): Next combat: Every 6 seconds, a champion joins combat from the bench
  • Summon Dragon (12): Summon a 2000 Health Dragon for 1 round. Famous streamers beware, this one will have you in for a scare.

Charms that impact your economy are the next most common, with the ability to modify your shop, bet for more gold, or even trade HP for rerolls. As with the above examples, the beginning Charms will be accessible early, and the final examples will become available late in the game.

  • Coin Flip (0g): 50% chance to gain 1g for each Coin Flip you’ve used. At least it’s free.
  • Life Insurance (1): Next combat: Allied champions have a 50% chance to drop 1 gold on death. Time to reap a profit…
  • Sinister Deal (0): Lose 1 HP. Gain 2 Gold.
  • Major Wish (5): Gain a random effect such as A 4-cost champ and a 5-cost champ,
    Hugify 4 units (the four highest health units gain 500 Health and grow for 1 round), Gain 6 rerolls, 10 Gold, Gain 4 target dummies for one round, Gain a temporary Support item for 1 round. It could be anything, well, not anything, just any of the above listed things.
  • Enhance (2): Reroll your current Shop with champions 1 cost higher. Covers the cost of a reroll, what’s not to love?

There are also Charms that will only appear when running specific traits. Most of these Charms are only available in the mid-game, because that’s when the specific composition should come together, while also keeping their power level in line with other general Charms available at that time. We want to avoid a situation where we don’t gate ultra-powerful late-game Charms behind fielding a specific trait, and by front-loading these Charms, we can allow for that to happen while also maintaining variety and variability with Charm options game to game. 

  • Hocus Pocus (1g): Next Combat: Witches gain bonus Ability Power.
  • Busy Bees (1): Your Bees have bonus Attack Speed this round.
  • Portal Hopping (2): Gain a random Portal Champion.
  • Spitfire (2): Next combat: Dragon attacks deal an extra 1% max Health true damage.

Then there are Charms that lean into the Mayhem of the set and do, well, just about anything. They can give you Reforgers, copies of units you defeat, or even transform a champion. Here are but a few examples listed in ascending order based upon when they become available.

  • Gear Swap (0g): Gain a temporary Magnetic Remover and a Reforger for 1 round.
  • Comfort Food (1): Gain 1 Player Health. If you lose the next player combat, gain 2 more.
  • Polymorph (0): Planning only: A 2-cost champion you have transforms into a 3-cost.
  • Conjure Spatula (15): Gain a Spatula. Time to cook.
  • Late Bloomer (6): Gain a permanent three star 1-cost champion and a Magnetic Remover. Permanent here refers to the temporary nature of most Charms. You can still sell this unit, they’ll just stick around after the first round you buy the Charm.
  • Magnum Opus (99): Lose 66 player health. Gain a permanent 3-star 5-cost. Nothing to see here…

Finally, there are Ascendant Charms. These become available only after fielding the 5-cost Arcana Xerath. Every round of combat your odds of seeing an Ascendant Charm increase, but once you buy one, the odds reset. Charms are great with Xerath too, as his Arcana trait has your team growing in power with each Charm purchased, but enough about this bolt blasting Arcana. Let’s check out some of his Ascendant Charms!

  • The Tower (4g): Next combat: Gain a Lightning Tower that strikes nearby enemies.
  • The Moon (8): Increase your odds of hitting a 5-cost by 4%. Pay for luck.
  • The World (36): Gain a copy of every 4-cost champion. When you can’t hit one thing, just hit every thing.

Augments Mayhemified

Charms may be the newest mechanic coming to TFT, but we’re doing a large-scale Augment refresh with over 140 new Augments to make Magic n’ Mayhem feel even more unique! While there will be new Crowns and Crests for most of our new traits, we’ve also got new more generic Augments, Champion Augments, fresh takes on existing Augments, and most excitingly, our High-Stakes Augments, which we’ll get into first, right now!

With Magic n’ Mayhem, we’re moving our High-Stakes high-reward gameplay from traits to Augments. Historically, our risk-taking has been tied to econ traits, where the typical pattern is to trade Health (via loss-streaking) for a cashout…or a very fast game. This time, we’re moving this playstyle to the Augment space for several reasons. First, this allows for more flexible comp building while playing High-Stakes, since in past sets, the econ trait typically had you playing similar as-weak-as-possible openers into late-game boards that often kept one or more of your econ-champions. Second, this also allows us to find even more creative ways to create those huge cashout/massive pivot moments that are so exciting—more on this with the examples below. Lastly, it’s worth adding that econ traits aren’t removed entirely from Magic n’ Mayhem. We’ll still have late-game econ power in the form of Sugarcraft, which upon completing your cake through slamming item components, you’ll be able to cook up a steady supply of loot, and pastries to boot! Okay, let’s dive into some examples:

  • Fortune Favors The Bold (Gold): Whenever you win player combat, get a loot orb. Contents improve for each consecutive loss before the win. We heard your calls for the original Fortune from Fates. Well, here it is.

  • Trait Tracker (Gold): The first time you end player combat with 7 different traits, gain 5 random emblems. We're introducing more varieties of High-Stakes gameplay, but not every High-Stakes Augment will be game-winning cashouts. This is one of our first experiments with "medium-tier" cashouts that reward you for playing in a unique playstyle.

  • An Upgraded Adventure (Prismatic): After upgrading 4 champions to 3-star, gain a magnificent reward. Gain 4 1-cost units. Let the RErollers get REwarded!

  • The Golden Ratio (Gold): When you start the turn with at least 161.8 gold, gain a 2-star 5-cost equipped with items. In another twist, The Golden Ratio payout isn't that random, but the high moment is understanding how well you use your piles of gold to best fit your two star 5-cost. Surely you won’t get dizzy, right?

Now that we’ve seen our High-Stakes Augments, let’s check out some of our new and exciting ones that will have you playing a bit differently…

  • Anger Issues (Prismatic): All your current and future completed items transform into Guinsoo's Rageblades that grant 35 Armor and Magic Resist. Each stack also grants 1% Attack Damage and Ability Power. All your items become Rageblades. If you find itemizing hard, look no further!
  • Invested (Prismatic): Gain 16 gold. At the start of every round, gain 1 reroll for every 10 gold above 50 gold (max 100 gold). Invested has a + and a ++ version of the Augment with more base gold when offered as your second or third Augment choice. A twist on Hedge Fund. While Hedge Fund lets you stack infinite gold, Invested lets you turn that gold into even more PERMANENT free rerolls. When will you use these? Well, some say the perfect number is 100 free rerolls on level 9, but I always end up saving them for the next game… 8*(
  • Replication (Gold): Choose 1 of 3 components. For the next 2 rounds, gain another copy of that component. Just a simple Augment with a lot of cool combinations.
  • Placebo (Silver): Your team gains 1% Attack Speed. Gain 10 gold. It's a placebo-diff
  • Worth The Wait (Gold): Gain a random 1-cost. After 4 rounds, gain a copy of that champion at the beginning of each round for the rest of the game. Yes, you do get 99 copies if you live 99 rounds. Good luck.
  • Flexible (Prismatic): Gain 1 random emblem. At the start of every Stage, gain a random Emblem. For each Emblem equipped, your team gains 40 Health. For our Emblem lovers, we have the perfect Augment. Each stage you’ll get a random Emblem to shape your team around. Your power spike is Stage 6, trust.
  • I'm The Carry Now (Prismatic): Get a Sentinel with tailored offensive items that upgrade as the game progresses. This one is for all the Tacticians who get a bit dizzy and need an Augment to tell them exactly how to play—please don’t just be me. With I’m The Carry Now, you’ll get a Sentinel that’ll be the core carry of your comp. Time to just build around the cutie.

We also have a fresh batch of Augments that will empower your vertical trait builds. Whether you’re already playing Eldritch, Frost, or Portal, here are three that will make these even better to commit to!

  • Frosty Frontline (Gold): The Frost trait also grants 1 placeable Frost Statue equipped with Eternal Winter. The first time it would die, it instead regenerates over 6 seconds if an ally is alive. Gain a Warwick and a Zilean. Eternal Winter, meet eternal life!
  • School Mascot (Gold): The Eldritch summon is equipped with beneficial items. The summon gains a bonus 10% Health and 25 Ability Power. Gain an Elise and a Syndra. Tainted Golem: Spirit Visage, The Dark Monolith: Bloodthirster + Rabadon’s Deathcap, The Many-Eyed Beast: Bloodthirster + Rabadon’s Deathcap, The Stormbringer: Radiant Items. Cause who said an Old God couldn’t use a few new tricks?
  • Portal Delivery Service (Gold): Gain a Galio and a Zoe. At the start of each round, gain a random 1-3 cost Portal champion. If you loved Yordle from Gizmos & Gadgets, this Portal Augment will deliver… through Portals.

The last group of new Augments to preview is our new Champion Augments. We’re always excited to create novel ways to play TFT, and Champion Augments enable boards that are otherwise way too wacky to work. Here are a few of our favorites:

  • Deja Vu (Gold): Gain a Galio. Your strongest Galio gains 3 range and gains 15 Mana and 8 Ability Power per attack. His Ability deals 150% damage but no longer Stuns or reduces damage. Champion Augments are a great time to give a small nod to past sets. For those of you around during Dragonlands, Galio has become our favorite of the ranged Dragons.
  • Witchy Wallops (Gold): Gain a 2-star Poppy. Your strongest Poppy's Ability no longer shields but strikes 3 times, dealing 80% of the original damage. If anyone remembers the horrors of Candyland Poppy, a popular reroll comp in Galaxies, this Augment will bring back your healthy fear of this buckler-wielding, hammer-smashing, face-annihilating tiny Yordle.
  • Spin To Win (Gold): Gain 2 Wukongs. Your strongest Wukong's Ability scales with Attack Damage instead of resistances. He gains 30% Attack Damage and 30% Attack Speed after each cast. As our sets evolve, so do our Augments. Here's our first try at a 3-cost Champion Augment since Monsters Attack! Each time Wukong spins, he'll ramp up into a fast-attacking BONK machine.

The team is incredibly excited to deliver a new batch of Augments that not only open up novel team compositions, but also enable previously trait-bound playstyles. But not all our Augments are that wild, we have about 20 new Augments that are variations of Augments you already know (and love).

Between the 200+ new Augments, over 100 Charms, and an entirely new roster (that you can read more about here), we can’t wait to hop into the Convergence with you on July 31st with patch 14.15. Till then, be sure to keep on the lookout for other Magic n' Mayhem content from charmers such as myself or others—I’m sure they’ll have cute quips too!