Mel, Newly Awakened: Nexus Night Chase Card

We've already covered every confirmed Vendetta Nexus Night promo as a set — this post is the deep dive on the one everyone's actually chasing: Mel, Newly Awakened, promo printing 069b/166.

What Mel, Newly Awakened does

She's a 4-energy, 4-Might Mind unit, and her printed text does two jobs at once. First, a simple value trigger: "When you play me, draw 1." Second, a scaling payoff through Empower: pay 3 energy on a later turn (once, and only while she isn't already Empowered) to flip her Empowered — after which your spells and abilities can't be countered, and any effect you control that would give a unit -Might gives an additional -1 Might. (New to Empower? Our full keyword guide breaks down exactly how the two-stage upgrade works.)

That's a genuinely control-shaped payoff — protect your own removal and spells from being countered, then make the removal you do land hit harder — which tracks with Mel's reputation as a Vendetta control legend's headline piece.

Draw-1 now, a bigger Mel later

The two halves work on different clocks. The draw trigger fires the instant she hits the board, so she's never a dead card even if you never find the spare energy to Empower her. Empower is the payoff for sticking around: bank 3 energy on a turn you can spare it, and every spell or removal effect you play afterward gets meaningfully harder to fight through.

Every Mel, Newly Awakened printing, side by side

The regular Epic base print, the Showcase alt-art, and the Nexus Night promo are, once again, the same card mechanically — same stats, same text. The promo (069b) is the one that turned Vendetta's current Nexus Night season into a genuine chase.

Where she sits against the other Nexus Night grails

Mel, Newly Awakened sits in the middle of Riftbound's three big Nexus Night promo grails: pricier than Lee Sin, Centered (Unleashed's season), but well short of GGEZ Teemo (Origins' original, and still the priciest of the three). That's partly a function of timing — Vendetta's Nexus Night season is Riftbound's current one, so her print run hasn't had nearly as long to dry up as Origins' did.

Is she worth chasing?

If you're building a control shell around Mel, the promo print is a genuine collectible upgrade to your deck's showpiece — the ability is identical to the base print, so you're paying for the art and the scarcity, not extra power. If you just want in on Vendetta's current chase-card conversation while it's still actively unfolding, rather than years-settled the way Origins' is, this is the one to watch.