The Proven Winners
These decks are what I would like to call the most spoken about Bo3 decks in the past week. The lineup of Scouts + Fizz Aphelios + Ekko Zilean has won one of the daily MaRu tournaments piloted by infinitipatrons, and has top cut many others. The core of Scouts + Fizz Aphelios alone seems like it is making top cuts everywhere. It is what I would like to call one of the most balanced lineups of the week.
Scouts
31 cards
9 cards
29 200
Fizz Aphelios
8 cards
32 cards
26 400
Ekko Zilean
14 cards
26 cards
29 100
OR Shadow Isles Fae Pile
15 cards
25 cards
18 600
The thought process behind this line up is that both Scouts and Fizz Aphelios share an overwhelmingly good match up table against most of the other top decks in the meta, or at the very least do not lose badly against them. The third deck is the main topic of discussion, and today I did something different and gave you two options.
Ekko Zilean is the tried and proven method, already piloted to victory by many other top players. The second deck, is a Fae Shadow Isles experimental pile that is trying to do almost the same gameplay patterns as the Fizz Aphelios deck, where by playing with Rainbowfish you can freely attack into Shurima decks without worrying about Quicksand. The idea is that this would give you similar match up tables to Fizz Aphelios.
So onto our match up tables, the core of our lineup has a great match up table against Aggro decks and Shurima decks. We also have decent chances against control decks such as Feel The Rush. Ideally, you will want to target Sun Disc, Ziggs Taliyah, Pirate Aggro, Spider Aggro, and Feel The Rush. Two of our decks (Scouts, Ekko Zilean) also have great win rates versus Aphelios Fizz, giving you the chance to win one game for free and try to outplay in the mirror.
The deck that we do not want to see at all is Yuumi Pantheon. The deck has a positive against our full lineup so it needs to be banned on sight, no question about it. After Pantheon, I would consider banning other Demacia decks such Scouts.
In terms of alternative decks, I would consider keeping the Scouts + Aphelios Fizz core no matter what. This core is just way too good in the current meta. The third deck, as I mentioned, is up for preference. I provided two today, but other variants I have tried include Ziggs Taliyah, Yuumi Pantheon, both of which make you a bit too vulnerable to aggro decks for my taste. I even tried Tahm Kench Soraka which shares the same positive win rates versus Sun Disc and Aggro decks.
Ending The Shuriman Empire
If you are tired of all the Sun Discs running around, but also do not want to just play straight up triple aggro, well I have an alternate solution for you.
Azir Irelia
25 cards
15 cards
24 500
Rumble Sion Draven
23 cards
17 cards
25 700
Darius Gnar
20 cards
20 cards
23 400
This lineup is meant to do one thing really well: destroy Shurima. All three of these decks have great win rates versus both Sun Disc and Ziggs Taliyah decks, making them our go to targets with this lineup. However, the fun doesn’t stop there. We also have two decks in Azir Irelia and Rumble Sion Draven that destroy Pantheon decks, while our third deck has an even matchup versus the deck. This allows us to also focus on beating the lineups centered around Pantheon. We also do evenly versus Feel The Rush lineups, with both Azir Irelia and Darius Gnar having positive win rates versus the deck, and Rumble being our outlier that needs to high roll.
In terms of ban strategy, we have no choice but to ban any aggro deck we come across. Pirate Aggro would be the main priority, but would consider banning things like Spider Aggro and Scouts as well. Low to the curve decks that can go really wide are our biggest worry as they can outpace us. Especially if they focus on hard countering Azir Irelia.
An alternative for this lineup is to instead bring Pantheon Yuumi yourself. You will have to outskill your opponent in the Pantheon mirrors, but you still keep the great win rate table against Shurima decks to compensate.
The “I Want To Beat The Top Players” Lineup
Isn’t it a bit interesting how almost every top player in the game is currently playing Fizz Aphelios, Ziggs Taliyah and Scouts, or practicing “weird” decks like Ekko Zilean. What if I told you there is a lineup that could potentially abuse that trend and reliably beat those decks?
Pantheon Yuumi
15 cards
25 cards
23 400
Scouts
31 cards
9 cards
29 200
Mono Viego Shurima
18 cards
22 cards
20 000
There is no denying the trend that we are seeing in MaRu daily tournaments, Aegis Esports League, and twitter over the past week: Top players are loving Aphelios Fizz centered lineups. This lineup is meant to make your experience against such players less miserable by not outright losing to them on the spot.
The idea here is that Pantheon Yuumi, Scouts, and Mono Viego Shurima share an excellent match up table. Here is a glimpse of what I am talking about:
As you can see, we do well against Ekko Zilean, Feel The Rush, Ziggs Taliyah, Sun Disc and Scouts (assuming you outplay the mirror). We have a more even matchup versus Mono Viego, Karma Viktor and Draven Sion. Against Aphelios Fizz, while we are technically slightly unfavored with Viego Shurima, we can tech the deck slightly to increase those odds. Overall the table looks very even and favorable, with the only outlier being triple aggro lineups abusing our Pantheon Decks.
The ban as such should always go to Pirate Aggro when running against triple aggro, and just hope that you can steal the win with Pantheon against their potential Draven Sion.
For alternative decks in this line up, other considerations include Darius Gnar overwhelm, Gangplank Sejuani, and Karma Viktor. All three of these alternative decks give you more percentage points versus Aphelios Fizz if that is all you are expecting to face. However, they all lose a lot of percentage points versus Scouts. So you gain somewhere, lose in another place.
Monte’s Pet Lineup
Nami Fizz
21 cards
19 cards
32 100
Ekko Zilean
14 cards
26 cards
29 100
Ziggs Taliyah
30 cards
10 cards
25 300
This is the lineup I have settled on because it’s the three decks I enjoy playing the most this patch! It’s also what I used to make top cut in OLS #42 - before the patch. I’m very comfortable playing all three of these decks into most of the metagame, and I feel particularly good about my odds into control lineups.
While this lineup may struggle into Sun Disc and Pantheon
, I feel the nerfs to Mono Shurima bring that matchup in line for both Ekko
Zilean
and Nami
Fizz
. As a result, you can comfortably get away with banning Pantheon. I’m not particularly concerned about Sion with this lineup as I know the matchup and am quite sure it’s favored (enough) for all three of my decks.
Nami Fizz can play unleveled Nami to create fearsome blockers - or can just play for a swarm + Fleet Admiral Shelly
gameplan and be OK.
Taliyah
Ziggs
has fearsome blockers, while also being able to leverage Hexplosive Minefield
, Quicksand
, and Rite of Negation
to stop both board and spell-based lethal.
Ekko Zilean can play through Zilean’s Time Bomb
, and Fallen Feline
’s Hexite Crystal
- while also keeping Quicksand, and Rite of Negation up.
The other popular decks in the meta - Scouts, A-Fae-lios, and Pirates should also be very reasonable matchups that I’m confident I can out-skill. At the end of the day, my lineup choice this time around comes down to me lacking the time to effectively prepare a lineup with Pantheon, and Sion at its core and as such I’ve fallen back on what I know. I can’t necessarily recommend this for EVERYONE but I can suggest you use the double Shurima core of Ziggs Taliyah and Ekko Zilean as a starting point for your own lineup.
Type A Lineup
Pantheon
15 cards
25 cards
23 400
Ziggs Taliyah
31 cards
9 cards
27 900
A-Fae-lios
8 cards
32 cards
26 400
OR Sun Disc
40 cards
26 200
Four decks, what’s up with that? Well guys, A-Fae-lios isn’t for everyone, the deck is tricky and if you don’t have at least fourty or so games on it I can’t in good conscience suggest that you bring it. Obviously not everyone has the time or inclination to learn a new deck the week of the seasonal so that’s where Sun Disc comes in. Mono Shurima is still a very good deck, especially in a tournament setting where you can protect it from it’s worst matchups.
The goal with this lineup is to play three good decks that aren’t too heavily polarized, there is a bit of a weakness into aggro but this season is mostly about picking what you’re going to lose into. Unlike previous seasons where we had two to three decks that were borderline unbeatable in the right hands nothing is so out of line this time around. Playing three of the best decks in the meta is one of the best and most advisable strategies for open rounds as you can expect them to have a field similar to the ladder. The one thing you’ll need to be comfortable doing here is playing mirrors.
Ban out Pantheon from your opponent’s lineup or the most problematic aggro deck (Pirates usually). If neither of those two decks show up in your opponent’s lineup you can ban out Sion
or Irelia
Azir
.
You can also consider playing Sion in this lineup over Sun Disc/Aphelios
- I would recommend the burn oriented lists with Decimate
and Noxian Fervor
.
Brain Off, smORC On!
Pirates
19 cards
21 cards
26 100
Sion
21 cards
19 cards
26 100
Spiders
21 cards
19 cards
14 500
This is the “beat Pantheon” lineup of the season! Triple aggro is arguably in the best spot ever and is positioned very well to succeed this season. With Pantheon and Ziggs Taliyah being at the core of a lot of lineups, control players should be nowhere to be found and aggro players can look to ban the third deck to come out on top!
There should be very few control players around but you will be at a serious disadvantage if you do queue into one - be sure to get some practice in for these matchups. Your typical ban strategy is going to be, removing the weird control deck if you find it. In the normal scenario of no control deck, you’ll want to ban out something like Scouts which can give you a hard time due to Miss Fortune
and their challenger units. Against the “Type A” lineup, you’ll want to be banning out A-Fae-lios if it’s there, or Ziggs Taliyah in the case it’s not. Other good bans can include Ekko Zilean, Bandle City Ezreal
, and Thresh
Nasus
should they show up.
As discussed last week, you can really play any aggro deck in your third slot for this lineup - I would probably stay away from Nightfall though - Bandle Burn or Yordles in Arms are both still fine decks that will draw the matchup tables you want with this strategy and are arguably better than Spiders. As always, remember to bring decks you’re comfortable on!
That’s going to be it from us this week! Thank you all for sticking around and supporting our articles, we wouldn’t be able to write these without dedicated readers like you! We wish you the best of luck in the open rounds and hope to see some of you finding success with the lineups we’ve come up with or lineups that you’ve curated yourself based on what you’ve learned!
Some last tidbits of advice:
Choose decks you know.
Practice your lineup.
Remember, misplays are not the end of your run but tilting can be.
And above all else…… HAVE FUN!
Good luck everyone, we hope to see you succeed and we can’t wait to come back with a whole new batch of lineups featuring our new champions for the next season.
