How to Win with Syndra in Magic n' Mayhem

Why Syndra

pros

Syndra is a 2-cost Eldritch/Incantor unit, and the most cost-effective carry you can get. She is a backline mage with baked-in Shred on her ability, Transcendence. Shredding reduces the Magic Resist of units affected by the status effect, which makes Syndra very powerful in Ability Power centric compositions. Statistically speaking, she is one of the most successful units in Magic n’ Mayhem at the moment, ending first place 20% of the time, and top 4 60% of the time.

cons

Her weakness is, of course, the fact that she is very squishy. To build around Syndra, you want to make up a bulky frontline for her to hide behind. Another weakness of hers is that she is a low cost unit. As such, you’ll need to ensure you can star her up to 3 for her to keep up with the other carries in the lobby. To achieve this, you may want to reroll at 6 or 7 when your likelihood of finding a 2-cost unit in your shop is the best. As she is one of the most popular units right now, you’ll need to ensure that not too many others in the lobby are also angling for a Syndra carry - that would make finding enough units impossible.

item build

Since her ability is so powerful, she performs based with items that enable her to cast the ability more often - Guinsoo's Rageblade, Nashor's Tooth, and Spear of Shojin. Ability Power items that merely improve her damage, such as the Jeweled Gauntlet or Rabadon’s Deathcap, are fine options as well, though not her best performing items.

To build these specific items, you’ll need 2x Recurve Bow, 1x Giant's Belt, 1x Needlessly Large Rod, 1x B.F. Sword and 1x Tear of the Goddess.

preferred augments

• Spellblades (Gold) - Whenever one of your champion casts, their next attack deals bonus magic damage equal to 175% of their Ability Power. Self-explanatory! Increases your Syndra’s DPS exponentially.

• Support Golem (Gold+)- Gain 1 Golem that fights for your team, holding 1 permanently attached Support item(s). This will improve your frontline and potentially net you a powerful Support item.

• Pandora’s Bench (Silver) - Gain 2 gold. At the start of every round, champions on the 3 rightmost bench slots transform into random champions of the same cost. If you leave random 2-cost units on those bench slots, you may get Syndras to help you star her up quicker and without rerolling.

Eldritch Syndra

The most straight-forward option when building a Syndra-centric composition is to go vertical Eldritch. The Eldritch trait causes an Old God to jump into the fray after your team has taken some damage. The more Eldritch units you have, the more powerful the Old God.

In this case, you'll want to angle for Eldritch 7, at least, so that you can summon the powerful Many-Eyed Beast. This means that in addition to Syndra, you'll need every other Eldritch unit to make the comp happen. Ideally, however, you'll be able to acquire just one Eldritch Emblem and open up your options significantly.

If you do get your Emblem, the best thing you can do is give it to Xerath, another top-tier magic damage-dealing unit, and make them your 7th unit, then slot in Tahm Kench as your 8th unit, and your 5th front liner. Now you have three powerful mages in your backline, all taking advantage of Syndra’s area-of-effect Shred, a sturdy frontline to protect them all, and The Many Eyed Beast to provide even more damage and protection.

Shapeshifter Syndra

Another way to achieve a similarly powerful - if not even more powerful - line of defence is to field Shapeshifter 6. In addition to being naturally tanky, Shapeshifters will gain triple their usual max Health bonus after they cast their first ability. We'll keep Elise and Briar which allows us to activate Eldritch 3 and still get an Old God to come help us as well.

Smolder is an odd addition perhaps, but he is a strong 5-cost unit and will be empowered by Shyvana in the front line, the two of them activating Dragon 2 and gaining evolved abilities.

Vanguard Syndra

This final comp concept is a little light in the front line and a little heavy on the magic damage. Mordekaiser will be our primary tank, making up one of four Vanguards to protect the mages, and activating Eldritch 3 alongside Syndra and Nami. Eldritch 3 will provide an additional tank in your front line, which will be welcome indeed.

The other two important Vanguards will be the Chrono unit, Galio, and the Arcana, Tahm Kench. These two will activate Chrono 2 and Arcana 2 respectively, matching with the respective Karma and Xerath in the back. Karma and Xerath are another two of the strongest carries in Magic n' Mayhem, and will make great use of Syndra's Shredding ability.

Rumble is sort of awkwardly included as the next highest-cost Vanguard, but if you can acquire a Vanguard Emblem with which to replace Rumble, that would be perfect. Even a Vanguard Wukong would do wonders for this comp, let alone a 5-cost front line like Diana or Camille.