Celebration Tourney Top 8 Breakdown

Saturday saw a meeting of minds and monkeys with our 2 Mill Celebration Tourney pitting some of the best in the community against eachother and members of both the Mastering Runeterra pro team and The Squad for a cash prize, glory, and free T-shirts!

On top of the actual cash for the top 8, we had bounties on members of our team including WhatamI, Jasensational, Shadawx, MonteXristo, Puyshpii, and Samanthony all to win some of our hot new merch. (Available Soon)

But that's enough ads, let's look at the results.

Open Rounds

The spread of decks saw a few expected outliers, in Kai'sa Demacia, Thralls, bard Illaoi, and the new Ravenbloom deck; Twisted Fate Katarina. It looks like the big expected meta decks are still coming out widely as some folks may expect. With that short analysis, onto the top 8!

5-8th Place - Puyshpii ( https://twitter.com/puyshpii )

Kai'sa Demacia

An overall rather typical modern list for Kai'sa Demacia. It utilizes some of the low-cost units that give keywords to try and force a level for your Kai'sa on turn 5 to potentially win in a single turn by giving her scout and possibly spellshield and overwhelm. Notably the deck runs two Xer'sai hatchling, Voidlings,. Belvethi Elder and Petricite Broadwing to pile on the soup. A notable addition as of late is Rangers' Resolve and Durant Protege to bolster their matchup vs Azir Irelia and lower cost ping-decks.

Taliyah Lissandra

This thralls list is looking to better it's mirror game with the inclusion of one Harsh Winds and quash Kai'sa with two Quicksand. It doesn't fear aggro too much based on it's lower number of both Three Sisters and Avalanche, aiming to target midrange strats.

Ekko Zilean

A bit of a spicy take on the normally predictable list, this runs two Quicksands to help vs Kai'sa, is up to two Rite of Negations, and has an Aftershock for landmark decks like Thralls to try and slow them down or stop a pivotal Ravine.

5-8th Place - GrandpaRoji ( https://twitter.com/GrandpaRoji )

Kai'sa Demacia

The slightly more standard version, packing a Radiant Guardian as a 7th Kai'sa (aka, game winning threat on turn 5) despite that being a slightly more predictable line. This does open Roji up to using that looming threat to stop aggressive lines, although he doesn't have Abomination to fall back on.

Bard Illaoi

Bard Illaoi has been a meta mainstay for a bit now, with a lot of the key cards being three-ofs such as Byrd, Watchful Idol, Esmus, Croaker, Sea's Voice, Tentacle Smash, Eye of Nagakabouros, and usually Riptide Sermon. For this list (pun intended) some of the tech cards include two Ye been warned, one The List, and two Blood in the Water. The List is very potent with the Yes and Hired gun alongside Illaoi for wins out of nowhere.

Twisted Fate Katarina

Katarina Twisted Fate has been the premier Ravenbloom deck since Illaoi reared her tentacle into the meta alongside the challengers of Kai'sa decks, Katarina adds more than Annie does since she dies too easily while being able to threaten a win by herself and continually generate pressure and value.

5-8th Place - Luna

Kai'sa Demacia

Luna's take is the same as Roji's, more on the midrange side and teched to beat bad matchups. It's also avoiding Void Abominations to be sleeker.

Taliyah Lissandra

This version takes out the Preservariums and Quicksands aiming to be as fast and consistent as possible with pumping out thralls with ways to deal with the enemy board. It runs more Avalanches, the third Sisters and a Buried in Ice to stop develops from turn 6 onwards.

Ahri Kennen

An old classic brought back from the dead almost card for card with a couple exceptions. This modern version opts in to two Bladetwirlers, Syncopation, and two Concussive Palms to control the situation while providing potent threats a bit more than the old versions.

5-8th Place - Finni ( https://twitter.com/finni_lor )

Kai'sa Demacia

Finni's version goes for the big guns a bit more than the others, opting out of the rangers' resolves for a second Radiant Guardian to stop any meaningful aggression, and a Void Abomination functioning as Kai'sa number seven in case you get that far.

Bard Shen

A newer Bard list aiming to make use of the interactions between Shen, Kinkou Student, Greenglade Caretaker, and Ki Guardian to turbo flip Shen, buff the team very quickly, and make your board nearly impossible to kill. It is a bit soft to Kai'sa but Illaoi and the like are very soft to it, which is less of an issue if you've got a ban you can use...

Taliyah Lissandra

This version is very close to the last one, opting to slice out one Avalanche and up one Buried in Ice as a catch all way to put the opponent's board on ice for the turn or two you need it gone to close out a game.

4th Place - iannogueira ( https://twitter.com/iannogueira_lor )

Bard Illaoi

Ian's take on Bard Illaoi opts in for Make it Rains to spray down aggro decks, and two Zap Sprayfins which work very effectively with chimes, and the ability to find a tentacle, Make it rain, or Ye Been Warned, so 66% chance to find removal of some sort.

Aphelios Viktor Vi

Pretty much a card for card example of what you'd find on ladder at the end of last patch. This is a textbook Aphelios Viktor (Vi) Winding Light deck, opting for the full 6 flame chompers and a full suite of Mystics and Get Exciteds with no fancy flex

Kai'sa Demacia

This list aims a bit more towards late game than the Turn 5 OTK of a Scout Kai'sa (although it still does have that capability). It opts in for two Void Abominations as finishers, no Radiant Guardians to act as stonewalls, but two Merciless Hunters to act as removal against the opponent's key threats.

3rd Place - SnipecrossGG ( https://mobile.twitter.com/crossgg )

Jayce Heimerdinger Shadow Isles

A hard control list aiming to shoot down the opponent's board while playing Hextech Handlers to make the turrets from Heimerdinger or Production Surge massive threats. It runs the full suite of Vengeances

Maokai Nautilus Twisted Fate

I'm not sure here, guess the third Maokai isn't as relevant or important for deep as it used to be, opting for a Twisted Fate for flexibility and another finisher instead.

Taliyah Lissandra

The high-avalanche version, not much to talk about here.

2nd - Metal ( https://twitter.com/MetalSonnet )

Sion Draven Vi

This is interesting to see, if any Sion Draven list were to crop up I'd have expected a burn one but here we have unadulterated midrange value town from back when Twinblade had Challenger folks! This sports Aloofs, a Physician, a VI of all things with no Survival Skills, two Flocks, a Culling Strike, one Scorched Earth and a Captain Farron to round it out. It aims to have answers for everything niche and value for the more broad audience.

Twisted Fate Katarina

Well. I guess he has to have ONE standard deck.

Gwen Udyr

This is a pile of spicy midrange innovation. It builds up Hallowed through Gwen's crew and Gwen herself, has Stances to give Overwhelm to whatever is still alive and utilize the Hallowed, and also has a bunch of cards that generate stances as proxy card draw. Having played a few games of it on ladder, it feels surprisingly potent, especially with the ability to be the control player and hold Vengeance for key threats, holding onto one big threat like an Alseer or Udyr on board while doing so.

1st Place - Kfelt ( https://mobile.twitter.com/kfelt_ )

Teemo Twisted Fate Monkeys

The Hotness, Powder Pandemonium.deck. its based around aggressively plundering with Warning Shots, Teemo, Jagged Butcher, Monkey Business and Swindle, all to build up an unreasonably large Pandemonium, especially when paired with a Jagged Taskmaster trigger. A full board of monkeys guarantees 6 damage not counting actual att acks, that with the heavy ping and chip-damage based gameplan makes for a potent aggro deck the likes of which we haven't seen in some time. One quirk of the deck's current interactions is that Powder Pandemonium (at time of writing) gives one more monkey than it says, if you have damaged the enemy on the cast turn, effectively acting as if it has plunder itself.

Gwen Bilgewater Monkeys