76 players came out to fight it out on Seasonals-eve for a good cause; the Gaming for Josh Charity tournament! Numerous prolific players from across the Americas came out to show their support and sling some pixelated cardboard. In total Gaming for Josh was able to raise just over $9,000 for the West Coast Kids Cancer Foundation over the course of their full event! We'd obviously like to thank The Gaming Stadium and Pepper.GG for their hard work in this partnership as well, every bit helps when it's towards a good cause.
With that said and done; the lineups!
1st Place - Sharkbait
Draven Sion
21 cards
19 cards
26 100
Sharkbait's Sion list is a powerful burn variant that uses the powerful tools we're all used to from discard aggro to push in some damage, before using 3x Mystic Shots, Get Excited, Noxian Fervor, and Decimates to take them the rest of the way, all while threatening Sion to crash in.
Fizz Afaelios
9 cards
31 cards
26 600
This version of Afaelios opts for two of each attach options, and one of both popular flex cards in Hush, Stress Defense to handle whatever may come up, and keep the opponent on their toes.
Yuumi Pantheon
14 cards
26 cards
24 100
This diverse Pantheon list is the type that aims to keep options wide, same as their other lists. Opting for one ofs on; Blinded Mystic, Camphor the Doubt, Hush, Bastion, and Chain vest.
2nd Place - JustSomeBadJuju
Elise Spiders
17 cards
23 cards
14 500
Proving to the world that budget decks still do pack a punch, this Spider Aggro list clocks in at 14500 shards in total to make! It has the normal 12 one-drops, potent spiders for Two-drops, and Frenzied Skitterer to bump up the hard to block team while making your fearsome blockers pretty much elusive. It also holds Fervors and Decimates as reach in addition to Doombeasts. It builds a board and then uses flipped Elise or a series of Skitterers to put your opponent over the edge of stabilizing.
Pirate Aggro
20 cards
20 cards
26 300
Pirate Aggro has been the marquis deck of the archetype for the last patch and change. It always has 3x Miss Fortunes but can vary on her dance partners so to speak. It has a lot of attack trigger cards, so more than other decks developing is usually the right option unless there are specific reasons you want to avoid doing so such as an Avalanche or a Deflecting Palm. The only noteworthy tech besides the Champion balance here is the inclusion of Make it Rain, to diversify the Zap Sprayfin pool.
Heimerdinger Ezreal
27 cards
13 cards
24 400
This potent burn list has come out in the past few weeks as a real threat, making full use of the Baboon/Chompers package, in tandem with every piece of efficient burn possible so that you can go face, take out the enemies, and build an army of robots all at the same time.
3/4th Place - GrandpaRoji
Taliyah Malphite
30 cards
10 cards
28 400
The Roji Special. This is a list I'm not too familiar with so it's hard to talk too much on it. It has the normal explosive tempo of being able to Salt Spire + Taliyah, Chip as a one-mana 3/3, and the normal landmark staples. In addition to them, Roji includes some Stonebreakers are removal on a body, the normal interaction cards for landmark decks. The other interesting thing I'm not used to seeing from these sorts of lists is two Celestial Wonders, presumably to slow the opponent down, or get in for that big Unstoppable Force turn after the opponent re-develops.
Azir Xerath
40 cards
27 700
A standard Sun Disc affair, two Curators to be able to pop on 7, no ambassadors in lieu of Rite of the Arcanes and the like.
Yuumi Pantheon
14 cards
26 cards
23 000
Some spice here in the form of two Gifts from Beyond to generate whatever is needed for the time. Additionally there's no Golden Aegis in this list, opting for the full three Cataclysms.
3/4th Place - Foreto, of Pandex Esports
Viktor Lee
21 cards
19 cards
26 900
Vik Lee is a powerful control deck that instead of going all in on Lee combo as was the plan in the older Lee decks, instead uses Lee as a control tool to support the inevitability of Viktor. It makes use of Ballistic bot and Viktor's Hex Core Upgrades to quickly tick up Lee to his level, and keep Eye of the Dragon pumping out dragonlings. Aside from that it makes use of the removal and disruption tools from the regions, in Mystic Shots, Concussive Palms, Denys, and a Spirit's Refuge to keep your key threats alive. In keeping to it's spell-centric nature, it runs a couple Poro Cannons and Calculated Creations to generate blockers or additional threats if needed.
Aphelios Zoe Vi
17 cards
23 cards
24 300
A very diverse list aimed around leveling Zoe, and using the powerful value tools of Targon in conjunction with Piltover and Zaun's efficient tools as well.
Ezreal Caitlyn
14 cards
26 cards
29 100
A standard looking classic tribeam list aside from one Culling Strike to hit some of the big threats in low-power champions.